


Trail Blazing

by evr



Series: Promare: World Wanderers [2]
Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Lots of little worldbuilding tidbits, M/M, i see your 'there was only one bed' and raise you a single sleeping bag, lots of flirting, they're basically on a roadtrip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23463880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evr/pseuds/evr
Summary: Immediately follows the events of "Fools for Adventure".Galo and Lio hit the road in search of the lost, confused, and abandoned promare.They meet some people, learn some things, and still have no idea how to act on those pesky feelings.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Series: Promare: World Wanderers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649992
Comments: 57
Kudos: 141





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> While this immediately follows Fools for Adventure, it's not entirely necessary to read that one first (at least, I hope I've cleared up everything in exposition? I've never tried that before so I might've messed up, who knows).
> 
> I decided to break this into chapters because I'm not sure how long it'll get, but it's already long enough to justify the split, I think.
> 
> Find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/covetedthrone).

The sun dipped low behind them, and Galo started yawning. Since he was driving, that was when Lio decided to call it a day and set up camp.

For miles around them, there was a whole lot of nothing. Some young plants cracking through dry dirt, a few husks of former buildings burned down to their foundations, long stretches of what used to be highways. That was about it.

But that was the state of the world, after being set on fire. Twice.

"Can you tell where you're going?" Galo asked him, covering his mouth when he yawned again.

"Sort of. It's not that close, but the promare can pick up on it. We're going in the right direction."

Lio released the fires that made up his bike, but he didn't force them away. They fluttered around on the air like technicolor moths, or fireflies. When he gave them that sort of freedom, the flames were happier. Knowing they were _actually_ alive, it was wrong to bottle them up - as long as it was safe to let them burn, he would let them.

He scuffed the heel of his boot into the ground, just testing. Not too rocky, more sand. It would be fine to lay out sleeping bags and sleep there. He, at least, could sleep on that. Galo might be another story, since he'd never had to do much sleeping outside.

...It'd be fine.

"It's dry out, so we probably don't have to bother with a tent if you'd rather not," Lio said, "Stars look nicer, the farther away you are from civilization."

"What about bugs?"

"What, do you see any?"

"Or lizards? Or… whatever else is out here?"

"...Fine, we'll use the tent."

"I'm not saying we have to!"

Lio just rolled his eyes and unloaded the tent from his pack. At least it was easy to set up. He'd had a tent before while living outside of cities, a shabby old thing with pegs and a bunch of collapsible rods that didn't survive its first surprise attack by the Freeze Force, but this one popped right into place as soon as its binding was undone, and had advertised on its packaging that it was properly weather-resistant. Pegs were optional, he supposed, for bad weather or uneven ground. No need for them on a clear night in the middle of nowhere.

He'd brought some perishable food, and he figured they could eat that together the first night. He'd have to resupply at some point since the food would be for two, which he hadn't planned for. Maybe he could hunt, if they encountered wildlife.

One thing to get out of the way before relaxing. He pulled his phone out and called Burning Rescue Headquarters. Video call, so they could see he hadn't let anything happen to Galo yet.

"We're alive for now. Here's our daily check-in, as promised."

"Hi, we're definitely alive and Lio probably doesn't want to kill me yet!" Galo leaned over Lio's shoulder to get into the frame and see them.

Lucia, onscreen, was eating a slice of cake. She turned away and shouted, "Hey, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are calling!" Then she turned back to them. "They let me pick codenames for you."

"...Thanks," Lio said, heavy with sarcasm.

"So, any updates?" She stuffed a forkful of cake into her mouth.

"None. We didn't get all that far." They'd left in the afternoon, so nightfall wasn't going to take them too far out of town. "But it's true, I don't want to kill Galo yet."

Galo leaning over him like that, it was noteworthy. He also put a hand on Lio's side. That was... Something. Lio wanted him to keep it there for a while, maybe.

"I'm really not worried that you'll _kill_ him," she grinned widely, talking with her mouth full. She swallowed and then pointed at the screen with her fork. "Has Galo tried anything, yet?"

"Anyway! We're doing great! Bye!" Galo reached over and ended the call. His face was panicked and red.

"...You couldn't be more suspicious if you tried," Lio told him.

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't play dumb when it's convenient."

"I'm never _playing_ dumb."

Lio rolled his eyes again. It was going to be a very long night. "I really might kill you."

"Well, give me a good, authentic camping experience for my last night alive, then," Galo grinned at him.

There wasn't enough material around for a traditional campfire, so Lio guided his fire onto a fixed point, letting it burst into an enduring flame. It would burn all night if he let it, and he probably would. "Alright. Authentic burnish camping experience. Give me your gun." He held his hand out.

Galo wisely hesitated. "Why?"

"For the random Freeze Force raid in the middle of the night." Lio couldn't hold back a crooked smile. Galo looked less amused.

"I'll pass on that part."

Lio, unfazed, walked past him to where he'd set his travel pack down. "I guess we should eat and get to sleep early, so we can keep going when the sun comes back up."

He tossed one food container to Galo and grabbed one for himself, quickly warming them both in his hands. He'd filled them with some cooked vegetables and cured meat that he knew would survive without refrigeration for a couple more days. Enough nutrients to keep him going. He hadn't been too concerned with much else, because he never had to be while traveling.

"This doesn't count as cooking for you, by the way," Lio added. He'd said he would cook for Galo someday, and he still intended to. But this wasn't it. Obviously.

"I should hope not," Galo made a face, "The atmosphere is all wrong."

"...What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh! Nothing," he said sheepishly. "Have you been out this way before?"

"There's no landmarks in sight, so who knows…"

Galo didn't push - he never did. He knew Lio didn't like talking about his past, so he never asked for any details. Maybe someday that would change. It could. Lio might be more willing to open up eventually, but Galo wouldn't like hearing the things he'd say, and that was the main reason he kept holding out.

"Do you know what direction we're heading in?"

"Specifically, I don't know. Somewhere east. I'm just following the promare for now. No idea where that'll take us."

"Where do you _hope_ we're going?"

"Hmm," Lio hummed quietly as he considered that. There were plenty of places he'd probably like to go. "Have you ever been to the ocean?"

"Nuh-uh," Galo answered, with his mouth full.

"I'd like to take you there, then. Or the Great Lakes, if it's not too cold." He'd been to those shores before, once. A long time ago, in easier memories. Not the kind of thing he was open about. "Life is really different in other places. I think you'd be interested."

Galo was looking at him expectantly, waiting for more.

Lio shook his head. "Everything should be changing, now that there's no burnish, so I can't really predict what it'll be like anymore."

"Other than you."

"That's true," Lio bowed his head, staring at the food in his lap. It was something he'd feared before - being the last surviving burnish. This was, ultimately, the best way for such a thing to happen. All the others were still alive, just regular humans now. They had a shot at a normal life.

 _He_ didn't, but he'd convinced himself that he didn't need one anymore. He couldn't lead a fulfilling, normal life. He had to _do_ something with his life, it had to be in service to the former burnish he cared so much about. It had to be for the promare, for everything he stood for before.

And… With Galo at his side, it would be fulfilling. He'd be happy. Not normal, but happy.

"Well, I guess someone else could have found some of those promare-stragglers, too." Galo thought aloud, as if it was the first time he'd considered it.

"Even if they did, not many people would know enough about the promare to do what I do."

"I can believe that. You're amazing with that stuff." It would've sounded better if he wasn't talking with his mouth full. Regardless, Lio felt his face warm. "So what will we do if someone found one and won't hand it over?"

"Steal it." He shrugged.

Galo didn't seem to like that answer.

"I mean, assuming they wouldn't accept money for it, I guess. Don't judge me, I've been living outside of the law for years, I'm still getting used to the 'right way' of doing things." He got a little defensive, which Galo laughed at. Lio grumbled to himself and stuffed food in his mouth.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Galo concluded, shoveling the remainder of the food in the small container into his mouth like a glutton. Lio pulled a face at that, but it was fine. He'd been getting used to Galo's eating habits since they'd lived together for months already.

"You couldn't ask for a better night than this to be sleeping outside for your first time," Lio told him, passing him the remainder of his own food (he was always giving up his food to his travel companions, it was a habit he meant to break, but he didn't see that happening anytime soon). "It's going to get a bit chilly, but it should be fine. You can just pull your sleeping bag closer to me if you need to."

Not that he wanted to be a space heater, but for Galo it was okay. On cold nights, the burnish would often crowd together. Lio was especially popular those days, since he could put off the most heat even in his sleep.

"I'll finish setting up. Get out your sleeping bag when you're done eating."

"You sure you don't want anymore?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

Galo looked skeptical, but tipped the rest of the food into his mouth anyway and set the containers aside, unsure of what to do with them. Lio would burn them later. According to Lucia, they wouldn't produce anything harmful upon melting, but it felt like normal plastic to him.

Lio laid out his sleeping bag and turned to wait for Galo's, but Galo kept fishing through things.

He knew Galo didn't actually pack for himself, but if Burning Rescue did it, they should've put more thought into it than Galo was capable of, right? Unless… "Don't tell me."

"Lio, I don't think they packed one," Galo frowned. Lio put his palm to his face, tiredly.

"Alright. You can just use mine, I'm used to this, anyw--"

"No! It's yours, so you should use it!"

"Galo, it's fine."

"Or we could share?"

Lio took a long, hard look at him with narrowed eyes. "Share. A single sleeping bag."

"Well, I kept crowding you in your sleep before, so, will it make much difference?" At least he had the sense to ask that in a bashful way, because he must know it was especially dumb.

And Lio, the lovestruck idiot, was also especially dumb. "Fine."

It was dark, so he hoped Galo didn't notice him turn red.

  
  
  


Before getting ready to sleep, Lio was texting back and forth with Gueira about something, and Galo was enjoying the way his expression would change while he did it. He was so unguarded lately. It was nice to see.

He chewed his lip and held back a laugh. He winced with an amused smile at something Galo could only assume was an overshare. He blushed furiously and threw the phone in the tent at around the tenth incoming message.

"I guess it is their wedding night…" He mumbled, as if he'd owed Galo some sort of explanation for that outburst. Galo just grinned at him.

Ten hours ago, he wouldn't have dreamed they'd be out there together. He was just counting down the minutes until Lio left Promepolis, and Galo, behind. Looking at travel brochures and wondering where he'd go without him, what he could do in those places, trying to hold himself back from doing something stupid and begging for him to stay-- Well, he'd done that, regardless. Luckily Lio didn't go for it. This option honestly seemed like a better fit for them both, and he was glad he could join him.

Officially, now, they were partners. He'd been calling Lio that for a while, but now it was in their job descriptions. They were going to be paid salaries to traipse around the world looking for shiny rocks that Lio could inhale fire out of, and that was only the most _moderately_ ridiculous description Galo had come up with for it.

Officially, they were partners. Personally, Galo still kind of hoped for more, but didn't want to take advantage of their situation. If things didn't play out the way he hoped, their trip would be horrible for both of them.

Besides, things were already comfortable and close between them. Lio didn't complain when Galo got clingy in the middle of the night, and he didn't seem too bothered whenever he did something else mindlessly affectionate. It wasn't worth it to ruin that. No matter how nice it'd be to kiss him.

He couldn't slip a romantic filter over the memory of that 'kiss of life', it was too horrifying to watch him crumble away, and whenever he conjured the thought now it sent a wave of dread through him and rather than wanting to kiss Lio again, he just wanted to feel for his pulse. Which, of course, was super weird. So he tried not to dwell on that moment.

He'd had a lot of time to think while they were driving. A few hours ago he'd been _so_ ready to kiss him goodbye.

No, not goodbye. More like a plea for him to stay. But it was better that he hadn't done that.

Lio opened the front of the tent and gestured for Galo to come with him. "No scary stories by the campfire?"

At first Lio looked confused. "...Is that really something you think happened at any campsite I've been part of?"

Galo was about to argue that not every camping experience had to be tense and awful, but he held back. Lio would likely have entertained his dumb idea if it had been something he was comfortable with. He usually did.

This would be an interesting adjustment for both of them. Galo was completely out of his element and Lio wasn't used to feeling safe. But, by god, Galo was going to _make_ him feel safe if it was the last thing he did. Somehow, without coming on too strong.

"You get in first," Lio told him, unzipping the sleeping bag just enough to get inside easily. "And I _swear_ , Galo, if you make this weirder than it has to be--"

"I won't!" Even though he denied it, he was positive he'd make it awkward somehow, and the way Lio glared at him made him sure that they _both_ knew it. But Lio was a shockingly forgiving man. So it'd be fine. He slipped into the bag and got snug, wary of where he placed his arms.

As Lio joined him, he held his breath. It hadn't felt like a whole lot of room when he'd first seen it, but it was suddenly too much room, or Lio was too small, or something like that.

He gave Lio the reins, letting him rearrange their limbs to suit him better. He faced away from Galo and used his bicep as a pillow (the sewn-in pillow _was_ kinda small for two heads), which was adorable. The tent had a sort of screen door flap on it that let light filter through from Lio's fire, but it wasn't so bright that it would keep him up. No, other things kept him awake just fine.

For example, Lio was really warm, and extremely comfortable to lie with even though the ground was firm and nothing like the plush beds he'd grown up with. Lio hadn't been exaggerating about it.

He listened to Lio breathing and kept from making a sound, waiting for the moment it changed when Lio fell asleep, but it didn't. Tired, and recklessly bold, Galo put his other arm around Lio's waist.

Lio tensed, but only for a moment. "Galo."

The tone was sharp enough that Galo started to pull away, but he felt Lio grasp his hand and hold his arm in place.

"...I'm glad you're here. With me."

With a soft hum, Galo took that as all the permission he needed and decided to hug Lio as close as possible (which honestly wasn't much closer than before, it was a sleeping bag). It'd be weird in the morning, with their bodies pressed so close together, but Galo was pretty sure it'd be worth it.

"You're stuck with me, Lio."

But he also knew that sometimes, Lio could be swept along by Galo's enthusiasm. If he chased that thought down, he'd doom himself to a sleepless night of feeling guilty, so he ignored it for the time.

One more squeeze and a yawn, and Galo closed his eyes.

  
  
  


When Lio woke up, he was trapped in some kind of hellish fantasy. He'd somehow rolled over so his face was right up against Galo's collar, Galo had drooled into his hair, and yet, none of those things particularly bothered him much. There was something of Galo's pressing into his thigh. _That_ troubled him.

Because just before Galo started to snore, Lio had actually thought about confessing something kind of heavy to this idiot. Cozied up in a _sleeping bag_ , Lio decided his brain must have short-circuited and he'd momentarily become dumber than Galo ever was. Luckily, it passed and he'd slept pretty soundly, from the looks of it.

But Galo smelled kind of nice, like riding all day in the open air, not especially clean but not dirty either. How _easy_ would it be to just…

Nope. The moment Lio pulled back and saw the dopey, drooling grin on Galo's face, any amorous thoughts died instantly. At least he'd stopped snoring at some point.

Lio unzipped the sleeping bag and carefully climbed out. He would wake Galo later. They could absolutely not wake up at the same time with _that_ sort of problem.

Burnish had unique ways of cleaning up: the fires would sweep over their skin and burn away anything that wasn't meant to be there, or was unwanted. Lio realized kind of suddenly, after cleaning himself off, that Galo didn't have that. Sure, Lio could do it for him, but one tiny mistake and he could burn some pretty sensitive skin, or he could end up without hair or something equally awful.

Maybe his colleagues had packed something for him - Lio supposed they were _his_ colleagues now, too, but that was such a new development that he wasn't sure how to completely internalize it.

He wandered over to Galo's bike, rummaging through the supply pack. There was some package with Lucia's handwritten instructions on the outside that explained how to use a towel and a small machine to keep himself and his clothing clean.

There was a ton of water stored in there, at least three days' worth of clothing, toiletries, and what was basically a mini-fridge full of travel food. But if they were so thorough with everything else… Oh.

"Mornin'," Galo said, stretching his arms over his head and yawning.

"Galo."

"Hmm?"

"What do you think this is." Lio held an item up by the strap, and Galo tilted his head, confused.

"It's… A backpack?"

Lio threw it at his face. "It's a _SLEEPING BAG._ "

  
  
  
  


For about five hours, Lio didn't say anything to Galo unless it was necessary. Galo could tell he wasn't actually that angry, at least. Just flustered. He had to resist the urge to think of it as cute, because even thinking it was probably rude.

He tried to help break down the camp, but Lio had it done so quickly that he knew he'd be useless there (but he'd learn and improve. He was adaptable). For breakfast, Galo picked out some of the food Burning Rescue had provided - not especially tasty, but it was really filling. Some kind of smoothie-like thing. It reminded Galo of baby food. Not that he'd ever eaten baby food, to his recollection. It just tasted and felt the way baby food looked.

Lio burned their trash with a small flash in his hands, and, maybe out of habit, he used fire to erase their tracks. Galo knew better than to comment on it. He commented on plenty of other things, getting only curt responses because Lio was determined to keep giving him the cold shoulder. It lasted until lunch, and probably only went on so long because they couldn't really talk much while driving in the first place.

The landscape was changing finally. There was a field of weeds to one side, but at least it was green. Young trees were peeking above the messy field, no rhyme or reason to their arrangement.

There was a water source nearby, which they stopped at. Lio kept wistfully gazing over the field.

"When I was young, this is the kind of thing I liked to burn." He suddenly explained. "I knew that plants were resilient and grew back after fires, so I thought it wasn't hurting anything."

"And then you moved on to buildings?" Galo didn't mean anything by it, but Lio shot him a look.

"No. I had good enough control that my flames could feed on the air, so I eventually decided that was safer. Buildings came after… I became aware of the Foresight Foundation."

He was leaving a lot of details out, but there was no way Galo would ask about it. Lio was cagey about things like that, and it was a miracle he'd spoken about the past as much as he had just then. Asking would be pushing too hard, and it seemed fair to believe that Lio would open up about it when and if he was ready.

They had something sandwich-like to eat for lunch, which was great. He picked up that Lio was aiming to finish off their perishables in the order in which they'd go bad, which made perfect sense, so Galo would follow his lead on that. Lio took a bite of his and made a face, so it might not have been very good. Galo tried it and thought it was plain, but okay.

"Then, I did the terrorist thing for a while." Lio tried to lighten things. Galo's silence probably made him worry that he'd soured the mood, which wasn't the case, but that was fine.

"You weren't a… _terrorist_ -terrorist, though." Galo said thoughtfully, with his mouth full. "More like a freedom fighter!"

Lio half-smiled at him. "A freedom fighter?"

"Leading your people to freedom!"

"Well, that's putting a rather charitable spin on it."

"It's true though," Galo said, around another bite of the sandwich. "We're a freedom fighter and a firefighter team! I fight fires and you fight fr-- wait."

Lio ducked his head, shoulders shaking with poorly-contained laughter.

He knew there was probably a cool way of wording it, but laughter was a good response, so Galo left it at that and shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth. He missed pizza already.

"We should keep moving, as soon as we refill on water," Lio said, standing and passing the rest of his sandwich to Galo. It really didn't look like he'd eaten enough, but he was already walking away. Galo watched him worriedly for a few seconds, then ate it anyway. He'd bring it up later. And then force Lio to eat two portions, maybe. He still wasn't positive that Lio wasn't just full. His habits were different while traveling, that was obvious.

Lio took the task of refilling their water containers, and showed Galo how to do it without gathering dirty water so he could help next time. There were a lot of tricks to this survival thing. Lio was pretty fascinating.

"Can't you just boil the water to make it clean?"

"Trust me, I do that, too. But the sand and dirt, that doesn't boil away."

"If you didn't have your burnish fire back, would you still be okay traveling like this?" He was curious, not terribly serious, but Lio looked up at him with surprise.

"...I don't know. There's a very small fraction of my life in which I _haven't_ been burnish," Lio capped the water and thought carefully. "...When I sent the promare home, I was a mess the next few days. I tried to hide it, but I kept hurting myself because I tried to use my flames. Jumping down from high areas, or touching things that burned me."

"I noticed," Galo frowned, offering a hand, "You got used to it, I thought."

"I got used to hiding it better." Lio corrected him, sheepishly. He handed off the water jug first and stood on his own. "And then I found the first of those promare that were left behind, after a few weeks… I had two injuries that scarred during that time, but everything else was healed."

"You have scars? Where?"

"Maybe you'll find out," Lio smiled at him.

Galo sputtered, but turned to put the water away rather than panicking and dropping it. That had been suggestive, he hadn't imagined it. 

"Alright. I'm sure you noticed that we're on an actual road now. Recent tire tracks and everything." Once Galo managed to look at him again, he explained more, "That means it's a shipping route. If we follow it, we'll eventually find another settlement, or at least a motel and a gas station."

"I hadn't realized Promepolis was so isolated," Galo mused.

"It's less isolated in other directions," Lio called his flames in the shape of his bike as he spoke. "There's a farming community to the south, where a lot of the produce comes from. About two hours west there's another town, though it isn't as big, and the people there travel to Promepolis so often they just consider their town part of the city."

Galo couldn't pretend he wasn't impressed. Lio was well-traveled, and probably had a ton of cool stories to share. Maybe he'd feel up to sharing them, eventually.

He followed Lio's lead and they got on the road again.

  
  
  
  


It was later in the night when Lio stopped and made his bike dissipate in a hurry. He heard something up ahead, and couldn't let anyone see it. That was part of his deal with Burning Rescue. No one could know about the flames.

Galo watched him, then scooted forward on his bike so Lio could grab onto him and ride the rest of the way on a non-flaming motorcycle. It was a good enough plan, if a little awkward.

The sounds led to a small, shabby motel, which meant they could have beds for the night, a real shower, and possibly meals provided. There was a large truck outside making the noise, lights on and running. A man was inside of it talking on his phone, and he didn't notice them when they pulled up and parked. After a quick look around for security cameras, Lio brought his fire to solidify into chains around Galo's bike, so it couldn't be stolen. There weren't always shady types in places like that, but it wasn't rare to find them there either.

He paused one more time before opening the door though, to consider how it looked. He and Galo, walking into a run-down motel at night together… That was fine. Whatever assumptions were made, there were definitely worse impressions to give.

But before Lio could say anything beyond asking for a room, the elderly man at the front desk gave them a horrified look. "Are you even _legal_? I won't have any part of that! Get out!"

Lio bristled, "Excuse me? I'm in my twenties!"

The man demanded proof and Lio produced the ID Burning Rescue had issued to him, scowling the whole time. "Sorry about that, young man. We get a lot of unsavory types comin' through here."

It did nothing to smooth over his frustration, but the cheap price of the room helped a little.

Then he realized Galo was trying not to laugh at him and he got mad again. " _Two beds_ , please," Lio requested venomously. He heard Galo's disappointment and huffed at him.

He snatched the key and walked back outside - access to the rooms was along a breezeway, an old-fashioned style that wasn't seen much anymore. Not that it was a new building; Lio would guess it was pre-blaze (though it had survived the second blaze, thanks to Galo). Even the keys were the clunky old kind, with large plastic keychains with the room numbers attached.

Each door was painted olive green, the numbers hand-drawn over the originals. At number eleven, Lio frowned. It was the one of the more freshly-painted ones, but that wasn't really saying much. Opening the door, he was still pretty unimpressed.

"This place is kinda spooky," Galo said. "Like those classic horror movies."

"Well, I'll protect you if you're scared of being ax-murdered," Lio responded absently. "Try not to talk too much. It's not unheard of for rooms like these to be bugged."

Judging by the expression on Galo's face, he'd forgotten that 'bug' had more than one meaning for a few seconds there.

"...Just be careful what you say." He pulled blankets back on one of the beds just to make sure it _wasn't_ infested, and then sat down and took the set of brochures off the nightstand, just to see what cities they were closest to.

There was a Promepolis brochure with Kray's face on it, and he took a pen and vandalized the hell out of it. And didn't feel the _slightest_ bit guilty.

They were between three noteworthy cities, all newly established after the first blaze. One was a cult, and had never been harmful to burnish so he'd never bothered them in return. The other was a city built around shipping warehouses, and one of the few remaining functional airports - air travel was a lot less popular after a ton of planes went down in flames thirty years ago.

Galo sat down on the other bed, looking like he wanted to say something, and Lio tilted his head to wait for him. Instead, he got a flustered look on his face, grumbled and fussed with his hair in that way he did when he was impatient or frustrated. "I'm gonna take a shower," he announced. Clearly, he'd taken Lio's warning to heart and was worried about saying something he shouldn't, but Galo was really bad at keeping himself in check.

"Did you bring a change of clothes?" Lio reminded him, intending to be helpful.

He hadn't, and sprinted out to the bike to dig into his supplies.

  
  
  
  


The nonspecific warning was going to kill him, he decided. Lio had said to be careful, but not about what. Judging by the 'unsavory types' warning at the front desk, Galo _could_ assume that meant they shouldn't joke around about things like that? Or make any flirtatious comments, which they sometimes did. Maybe that was what Lio was worried about, outing himself to some stranger who was gross enough to bug a hotel room but not gross enough to allow someone underage to room with an adult?

He didn't _think_ the guy seemed like the type to listen in, but his faith in people was irreparably shaken by Kray, so even though he wanted to trust him there was a tiny flicker of doubt he just couldn't ignore anymore.

On the other hand, Lio was used to being totally paranoid, so he could _try_ to ignore it. He could also question why the hell Lio cared what some stranger thought, but he wasn't confident that he'd jumped to the right conclusion, so that was a pointless train of thought.

He also wondered if maybe Lio was just messing with him. It was possible, since he seemed annoyed that Galo thought it was funny when the man at the front desk thought he was a kid.

But see, it _was_ funny, because Lio had never so much as _blinked_ when people commented on his height or age before. So it was the context that made him angry, and that was cute and hilarious. The man thought they were there for a clandestine hookup. That it had drawn such a reaction from Lio was _hysterically funny_. Because it looked a lot like embarrassment, which supported Galo's 'Lio totally returns his crush' theory.

And as if to test that theory further, Galo decided to _not_ fully dress or dry off when he left the bathroom, and it was a minor victory to see Lio glance up at him from his phone for half a second and blush. Still, he couldn't push it too far. They were in the first couple days of a long trip, and it would break his heart if he made Lio uncomfortable for the rest of it.

Plus, just because Lio seemed to like him, he'd been so wrong before, and he couldn't bank everything on it. Lio just got swept along, that didn't mean he enjoyed it--

No. Kray couldn't ruin this. Lio was far more honest than Kray, he'd stopped wearing masks around Galo completely. He had to believe that.

"Time for our nightly check in?" He blurted out, desperate for the distraction.

"...If you put _clothes_ on. I'm not putting wild ideas into their heads."

"Haha, right." Galo threw on a shirt and sat down next to Lio on his bed, even though he knew that they wouldn't be sharing tonight. Just so they'd both be in the frame. It probably wasn't necessary, but too late, he did it anyway.

Lio looked over at him wordlessly, then back to the phone, starting the call.

This time Remi answered. "Oh, it's you two."

"Yes, our apologies, didn't mean to inconvenience you." Lio was putting on that bratty act he had with authority figures. He clearly did not like thinking of Remi as his superior. Was it bad to find that kind of cute, too? They'd get used to each other. Remi seemed cold at first, but he was a nice guy. "Anyway, we're alive. Found a room for the night."

"How close are you?" Remi was either taking notes on his tablet, or browsing something else while pretending to engage in conversation. "I don't know how this works for you, since I've never had alien fi--"

Lio ended the call abruptly.

Remi called back. "That was _rude_."

"We _found a room_ ," Lio repeated, adding more weight to the words through gritted teeth.

Remi looked at him, puzzled for a few seconds. "Oh. Right, you're paranoid, how could I forget?"

"Paranoia kept me alive for years, I don't intend to change."

"...Oh, _That's_ what you were telling me to not talk about!" Galo chimed in.

After a pause, Lio snorted with amusement. Remi looked like he found it both annoying and funny, which was pretty normal.

"What? You're so cryptic sometimes! You know I can't keep up!"

Lio patted his shoulder, but didn't say anything to him yet, keeping his focus on the call. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm not entirely sure how it works either. The closer we get, the more it's branching out, like there's several on the way I'm meant to find. And I will, and we'll let you know when that happens."

"Got it. You two go… keep being weird. Enjoy your room." Remi ended the call this time, and Lio's cheeks were red. Galo wasn't sure it was meant as anything suggestive on Remi's part, but he liked that Lio had that impression.

He also wanted to ask more about what he'd just told Remi, but knew asking for clarification would be specifically breaking that 'watch what you say' rule that Lio had set for the hotel room. He'd try and remember it later.

Lio flopped backwards on the bed, arms spread, exaggerating exhaustion. "There's not a _free_ dinner here," he said, changing the subject, "But we can pay a little extra to get something, if you want. Their printed guide has a menu. Says they have a full kitchen."

"Is there pizza?"

"Of course there's pizza. What country do you think this is?" Lio sat up, leaning back on his hands. "I doubt it'll be as good as you're used to."

"I've decided," Galo announced, "That I'm turning our trip into a World Pizza Tour. I'll try any pizza, anywhere, and rate it! Maybe start a blog."

"...That's the dumbest thing I've heard today." It didn't sound like too harsh a criticism while he was smiling like that, though.

"Including the thing where the guy thought you were underage?" Galo teased him right back.

" _Shut your mouth_." Lio snapped, but it was one of those times where he acted a lot more irritated than he actually was. "Call the front desk and order your stupid pizza."

Galo laughed at him and only felt a little bad about it. But he ordered the pizza, fully expecting Lio to eat at least half, and didn't know what to say when he only ate two slices out of the eight the pizza was cut into. On the one hand, Lio was very small, and probably didn't _need_ more than that; on the other, he hadn't eaten much at all in the past few days, and he'd definitely seen Lio put away more than half a pizza in one sitting before, even if it seemed like there was no room in him to store that much food.

"Are you sure you're eating enough?" Galo finally asked.

"I'd eat more if it didn't taste like frozen pizzas from the supermarket." Lio shrugged and laid down on the bed, messing with his phone. Galo assumed he was texting Meis and Gueira again, by the faces he'd been making.

He had a point though. This had definitely been freezer pizza. It wasn't inedible, it was still _pizza_ , but it was a far cry from being called fresh or delicious. It felt like Lio was dismissing the comment for a different reason though, and he didn't exactly know how to counter it; Lio was an adult, he could decide for himself if he wanted to eat more. But Galo also knew there was something off. And he wanted to say something, but he couldn't without more evidence or he'd just piss Lio off.

So he ate his half, but left the two extra slices in case Lio got hungry later. There was a mini-fridge in the room, and a microwave, so it'd be fine.

And then it was time for the worst part of the night: sleeping alone.

  
  
  
  


Ever the light sleeper, Lio wasn't going to sleep through the sounds he heard from the other side of the room. He woke twice before already; once when he heard that truck driving away finally, and once when he thought he heard scratching through the walls (but if there were some sort of rodents in that cheap hotel, he couldn't bring himself to be surprised). The third thing that woke him was sniveling, whimpering. He could sleep through Galo's snoring, he'd gotten really good at drowning that out, but he couldn't ignore _that_.

He didn't waste time - he'd comforted plenty of burnish through nights like those, sat beside them until they could rest, stroked their hair, whatever they needed. He could be that for Galo, too.

He sat next to Galo on the bed, resting a hand on his shoulder to wake him gently, trying not to startle him out of a nightmare. It didn't work the way he planned, Galo woke with a gasp, and immediately grabbed Lio's wrist.

"...Oh." Galo was bashful about it. Nightmares weren't something he needed to feel ashamed of, and Lio wanted to say that, but his eyes locked onto his wrist, and the grip Galo was using on it. 

He was feeling for a pulse.

"Sorry. Did I wake you?" He tried to play it off poorly, adjusting his grip to seem more neutral. There was a slight trembling in his fingers.

"Galo, is this…" Lio frowned, trying to piece together exactly what he wanted to say, and the right way to approach this clearly delicate topic. "Is this why you kept wanting to share?"

Galo sat up suddenly, about to say something loudly defiant, but clamped his mouth shut, grinding his teeth as he gathered his thoughts. "It's one reason," he said. "I like knowing you're-- you're still solid."

He still hadn't released Lio's wrist, so Lio tugged away and held his hand instead, using a strong grip of his own that he hoped was reassuring. "Of course I am." Then, pressing their foreheads together, he added, "Remember, _you_ did that."

If he were more callous, he would probably have tried to reassure him by doing something far more forward. Kiss him. He wanted to do it, but he knew he couldn't, not in Galo's current state. But it was fine, Galo could have the reins and he took them, grabbing around Lio's shoulders and hugging him to his chest for a few seconds, then drawing a long breath.

"I'm okay now. Sorry for waking you up."

"Don't be," Lio said, firmly. "Move over a little bit." He started to climb under the covers so they could share again.

"You-- You don't have to do that, I know you wanted your own bed!"

Lio ignored him, getting comfortable. "Hey. Did you lie about the sleeping bag so that we'd share it?"

"Wha-- no! I seriously had no idea they were bundled up like that, it looked like a bag of clothes, or something! And it was dark!"

"Then it's fine. I'll stay," Lio tried to speak warmly, but he knew it came out a little more commanding than he meant it to. "It's helped me before, too. My life wasn't pretty, I get it."

Galo gave in, sinking back down on the bed and hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure it was okay even though they'd done it dozens of times and Lio was more than a willing participant, he hugged him around his waist to keep him close. "...Thanks, Lio."

"...What are the other reasons?"

He felt Galo tense. It took a few seconds, but eventually he gave a sleepy-sounding answer. "I like being near you. It's nothing like piloting together, but it's still kind of awesome... Lio de Galon, but without the robot."

Lio had a feeling he could've provoked more answers out of Galo, but it would have been cruel. Galo wasn't some shrinking violet, he was a man who would say what he wanted, when he wanted to say it, and Lio could wait for that. He resolved to wait for it. "Mm. Good enough," he said. "Good night, Galo."

Galo mumbled something into his hair that Lio couldn't understand, but if it was important Galo wouldn't have mumbled it. If Galo wanted something, he was forward, loud, kind of obnoxious, and he'd say it properly.

He hugged around Galo's waist too, letting out a deep sigh of his own, and they both slept soundly through the rest of the night.

  
  
  
  


There were biscuits for breakfast, and Galo was relieved to see Lio eat more than one of them while they prepared to leave again. He also put that leftover freezer pizza in that refrigerated cooler space Lucia had installed in the bike's storage compartment (the bike was a bit on the bulky side, but it was hard to mind that when it handled well, carried all the stuff he could need, and was basically free). If they didn't run into more hotels or towns for a while, food could be a precious resource! Couldn't waste it!

The old man saw them off with a friendly wave, and as soon as they were out of view, Lio made Galo stop so he could summon his fire-bike again. It was really neat to watch him do that. Before, there'd been more danger to it, because Lio was a fearsome terrorist (which was… ridiculous. He looked downright _puny_ on that bike without all the armor), but now it was just flashy and impressive, condensed colorful fireworks erupting into bike parts.

He knew Lio was being mindful of their surroundings because he was always careful, but it must've been difficult to make sure that nobody would see them driving past. He didn't think a fire bike had a good rear view, so Galo resolved to keep his eyes peeled for him. As a team, they'd have to look out for each other. Lio used to have to look out for everyone, from what he understood, so Galo wanted to get him to lean on him at least a little.

Lio stopped mid-afternoon. They'd long gone off the beaten path, Lio leading the way as before, but he'd paused at what looked like an old, recovering forest. Tall spires of burned-out trees, ash-covered ground with very few fresh sprouts of plants. It would've been tough to drive through, so he would've assumed they ought to go around it.

"There's one here," Lio said, looking back at him. "It's not very loud. Do you have that weird thing?" He made a gesture with his hand that made Galo's heart stop for a second. He wasn't completely sure if that was intentional. No, it couldn't be.

"It's a _matoi_. Well, not really, but it's shaped like one." It was built into the bike, so he hit a release switch and pulled it free, holding it out for Lio.

"...I hope it doesn't bother you, but I don't feel comfortable holding it. Can you just find the right direction so I can go looking?"

"I thought it didn't hurt after Lucia fixed it," Galo said pointedly.

"It doesn't, but I don't like the feeling, either. Just don't aim it at me. It's weird."

Galo frowned, but switched on the device, turning it until he felt a snag, and then a shiny thread of burnish fire appeared out of thin air for Lio to follow. "What does it feel like?"

"Like I have a bunch of fire aliens sharing a body with me," Lio said sarcastically, glancing over his shoulder before he started making his way into the dead forest. "It makes me almost _too_ aware of them. They don't like it either."

Those fire aliens though, he seemed to enjoy their company, so Galo couldn't piece together why being aware of them would be bad. He trailed a bit behind Lio, watching the little colored sparks around him flit about after him. "You let them do what they want now, don't you?"

"Hm, within limits," Lio explained. "I can't justify containing them, they're alive and they need their freedom too. But if I can make them understand the need for secrecy, they're okay with it. I just need to find space for them to burn freely sometimes." He ducked under a large fallen log of charcoal, and Galo jumped over it to keep in step.

"Do you really understand them that well?"

"I've heard them for years. Understanding them is just a little different." Lio's wistful smile was pretty. "You're full of questions today."

Galo let silence fall between them, listening instead to the crunch of burned out branches under their feet. He was curious, and he didn't think that was weird. Lio was amazing, understanding him was fun. "Do you not want to tell me?" He guessed. "I just thought it would be okay, since we're working together on this."

"It's not that," Lio corrected him quickly, turning to face him, "...I appreciate it. That you want to understand what it's like. I don't know if you could have ever become a burnish yourself, but it means something to me that you're trying to understand. _If_ that's what you're doing."

"...It's not about the burnish, no. It's about you. Is that bad?"

Lio reached over and dusted ash off of Galo's shoulder. "It's not."

He didn't say anything else though, and turned back around to keep following the signal, leaving Galo to try puzzling it out himself, which he wasn't good at.

The signal led them to the base of one of the dead trees, everything around it charcoal-black. Lio leaned down, swept the ashes away with his gloved hand and picked up a black stone, like an obsidian arrowhead. "Here you are," He said, smiling at it with concern. "You caused some trouble here, didn't you?"

Galo switched his matoi gear off and watched Lio speak to the stone in his palm. As he'd witnessed before, it erupted into flames, Lio sucked them in, and the rock vanished. He made it look so simple, but also seemed like he was swallowing something bitter that burned all the way down his throat. "So the promare burned this place up recently?"

"...Seems that way. I didn't realize they could burn without a host, but that adds a whole new level of urgency to what we're doing." His face was determined, and just a little guilty because he'd taken responsibility for the promare himself. "It was upset about being left behind."

"Well, being upset is one thing," Galo frowned. "We need to tell the others. We might need them to mobilize in other cities, just to make sure none of them get 'upset' near people."

Lio's face was almost pained. "You're right. Let's get back to your bike. We should find a spot to set up camp."

  
  
  


After a long, exhausting video conference, Lio caught Galo zipping the sleeping bags together into one giant sleeping bag. He named it something, but Lio just rolled his eyes and brushed it off. It was fine. He'd made his peace with it, and he would sleep beside Galo no matter how awkward the mornings got.

It was such a small thing, and yet it made him feel needed and important, a small fragment of what he'd felt as the burnish leader. This wasn't the same, but it was sweet.

Sleeping side-by-side was close to what he wanted, anyway. It wasn't a punishment, so he couldn't complain. Someday perhaps Galo would be okay with taking it a step further, a kiss goodnight, affectionate words. Or maybe, Gueira and Meis had gotten into his head - their sappiness was justified after they tied the knot, but they kept putting ideas in his head.

Yes, Galo was striking; he carried responsibilities like Atlas with the burden of the entire world on his shoulders, _willingly_ , and those shoulders, those arms, they were muscular and he could probably crush Lio's spine with a hug if he was trying hard enough. His body was attractive. His _burning soul_ was attractive. He didn't need advice on how to properly admire it.

_When r u gonna jump his bones boss? :)_

Lio growled in frustration at the text from Gueira, responding with an obscene suggestion telling his former General where he could shove it.

He knew Galo had interest in him. He didn't know how deeply that interest ran, but he knew it was there. He was gentle and protective, and spent that entire conference call getting defensive for Lio's sake unnecessarily (Ignis kept cutting in, reminding Galo that no one was saying Lio was at fault for this or that problem). He'd uprooted his life to come follow Lio out into the world without so much as blinking.

The level of comfort between them was noteworthy, so Lio was almost positive that everything was mutual. And yet Galo, a force of nature himself, hadn't done a thing about it. There was a reason, and Lio wasn't foolish enough to kick him into acting. He knew how Galo must've felt in recent months, his heart was in a delicate place. It would be worth waiting for, and in the meantime, Lio would protect that heart as best he could.

Or maybe, just maybe, he was being a bit of a sap.

But it wasn't _so_ bad, being sort of sappy about this kind of thing. He was far more comfortable at night than he'd ever been when sleeping in a burnish camp. Galo wasn't the only difference - the lack of worry over Freeze Force raids made his sleep far more restful, and having small luxuries like camping gear helped. But Lio could say, with confidence, that Galo had changed things significantly just by being there with him.

And Lio loved him.

He hoped it would be okay to say so soon.

There was a longer distance between the piece he'd just found and the one he needed to find next, and he now knew better than to think he had time to relax. He was up early as possible, pushed himself as late as possible (though when he saw Galo tiring out, he took that into special consideration). He knew Galo probably couldn't survive on the rations Lio was used to limiting himself to, so he kept offering whatever extra he could. In the next week they crossed mountains, but they didn't spend a whole lot of time there.

Eventually they came to wide farmlands, full of organized rows of vegetables. Orchards, where the growers also baked delicious pies and tarts with their produce to sell to anyone passing through. They were inexpensive, so Galo talked him into splurging a little. They could keep leftovers refrigerated for some time, but not for too long.

One farm let them camp out on their land, and another a day away insisted they stay the night in the house, which Lio _didn't want to do_ , but Galo was persuasive. Or rather, too trusting. Still, nothing bad came of it, and in exchange for some cash and stories they got a decent set of meals and a comfortable, if slightly dusty, room for the night.

As they drew closer to their destinations, Lio realized that two pieces were probably close together, which would make the next hunt slightly easier.

"If we keep following this road east, where will we end up?" Lio asked the generous elderly couple who owned the house.

"Oh, Harper's Ferry might be a nice stop," the woman said, "and maybe the Old Capitol. I heard it's still standing after that nasty firestorm this year."

Lio and Galo exchanged glances, Lio with a stern look to try and prevent Galo from saying anything, but it was probably too late.

"It wasn't that nasty," Galo blurted out, like an idiot. "It wasn't even hot."

"That's true, it was nothing like the disaster thirty years before it," the man agreed, "But it did some damage, regardless. I heard the city where it started was completely leveled."

"No it wasn't! I mean, most of that damage wasn't even from the fi--"

Lio kicked him under the table to get him to stop. "Is that what the rumors are saying out here? That Promepolis was destroyed?"

"And good riddance to it," the man said, growling into his napkin, "That bastard in charge of the place, what's his name? Forestone? Foreskin? Oh, Foresight! That's right--"

Lio choked on a laugh and resisted the urge to encourage him to go with that second one.

"--He was the reason our kids had to go into hiding. We haven't seen them in three years." The woman finished his thought. "Our son and daughter both had the burnish mutation, sadly."

"Incidentally, our son torched half the apple orchard by accident," the man said, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, "I miss the idiot."

There was a warmth in Lio's chest, hearing that. "I'm sure they'll come home soon," he said, twirling his fork on his plate thoughtfully. The baked apples were a nice touch on the edge of the dish, now. "The mutation died out after the fire. There aren't any burnish, anymore."

That sparked a whole new conversation, and one where Lio debated mentioning his past as a burnish, but decided against it. Even if everything they said sounded sympathetic to the burnish, that kindness might have only extended to their immediate family members. He kept a tight hold on the reins of the conversation, careful of allowing Galo to cut in, and explained what had happened in Promepolis as vaguely as he could while being honest, just to avoid spreading untrue rumors.

They were offered separate rooms, and Galo almost accepted that, but Lio took his hand to quiet him again. He'd been doing a lot of that, trying to control conversations he knew Galo might make a mess out of. Galo was a bit of a disaster waiting to happen, in that regard. "Thank you, but we'd rather share."

"Oh!" The woman looked from their joined hands to their faces, surprised. "Well. Make yourselves comfortable, then!"

Once they were shut into a room, he'd expected to let go of Galo's hand, but instead he felt Galo's grip tighten.

"You're really okay with that?"

"With what?"

"With people thinking we're…" Galo's words drifted off with embarrassment as his gaze wandered away. He was still holding Lio's hand.

"Are you _not_ okay with it?" Lio asked genuinely.

"What!" Galo sputtered, face red. He was cute, embarrassed like that. "No! It's not that, I--"

"Then it's fine." He accentuated his point by lacing their fingers together and not taking his hand back yet.

The look on Galo's face was similar to the wildly flustered look he'd worn when he'd revived Lio on the Parnassus, only happier. Well, so long as he didn't flip out and try to punch him again.

"We can be as close as you want us to be, Galo," Lio said as he dropped their hands, walking to the middle of the room to take better stock of their surroundings. He knew Galo hadn't meant any harm. They _weren't_ a couple, not really, they just acted like it _all the time_. He had to keep reminding himself to let Galo have the lead. "Let's get our nightly call out of the way?"

Galo shook off whatever thoughts were swimming around in his head and sat down on the bed, patting right next to him for Lio to sit beside him.

Any soft feelings that Lio had held that night shriveled up and died when Heris answered. Lucia was sitting to her left, but Lio's eyes locked on Heris alone, and it took every bit of control he had not to let his flames do the talking for him.

Galo picked up on it and took over for him, gently easing the phone from his hand and greeting them with a wary smile. "Hey there, how's it going?"

"Super," Lucia answered. "That's some old-school wallpaper behind you. And a shelf full of ponies? Where are you guys?"

"This nice family is letting us stay the night. I think this was their daughter's room," Galo started, telling them way more than necessary by babbling. Somehow it worked to ease Lio's nerves a little. Not entirely, but it was something. After he finished recounting the details of the apple-pumpkin pie they'd been given for dessert, Lucia finally interrupted him.

"That sounds so weird and good. But shut up, you're making me hungry," She had her elbows on the console in front of her. Heris was watching, making sure she didn't accidentally press buttons. "We have news too, y'know. Why do you always talk first?"

"Sorry! What's going on with you guys? Did you tell the pizza guy I miss him?"

" _Galo_ , god you're annoying. No, I think Varys relayed that message and it was probably hilarious. Now can I tell you my amazing news yet?"

"Please do!"

"Heris and I put together a little something to make all our lives easier," she announced, holding up a small gadget that was round with a cute little screen. "I need to name it still, but it's gonna plot out where all the promare are via GPS. I just have to finish hijacking one of Kray's satellites, which is where Heris comes in."

"Ah… Yes, the Parnassus had a satellite prepared for… for the settlement in Omega Centauri. I've been tuning it to pick up on the promare the same way Lucia made those um… _matoi_?" She glanced at Lucia for confirmation, getting a smug nod (which Galo mirrored). "I'll just need some of that crystallized form of your fire for it, when you get back from this trip. That way, none of the promare themselves will need to be sacrificed…"

"Not your usual method," Lio sneered at her. She flinched. He was weeks away and she was still nervous around him. _Good._

"That'll be really great, though!" Galo took the lead again, smiling at Lio. "Gathering them will be a lot easier if we don't have to follow the trail on foot, don't you think?"

Lio startled himself by thinking that even if it was easier, it wouldn't be his choice. He rather liked showing Galo the world. He liked seeing more of the world for himself, as well. But they weren't telling him to stay home, they were coming up with a way to avoid detours, which was ultimately the best option. Even if these detours were… kind of fun.

"So much for that pizza blog," he said quietly enough that the phone wouldn't pick it up, but Galo could hear his amusement.

"I'm not giving up on it!" Galo whispered right back.

Even with Heris on the call, Lio couldn't completely hide his smile.

"Ugh, you guys are gross. Just make out already." Lucia groaned.

"I'll take it under advisement," Lio said, reaching for the phone in Galo's hand. "Thank you for the update, Lucia."

As he ended the call, he noted that he was still somewhat sour just from seeing Heris, but it was… notably less than it would have been a few weeks ago. She hadn't redeemed herself. Something had changed, though.

Galo dropped backwards on the bed, grabbing Lio around the midsection and forcing him down with him. He groaned, "I'm so full. Makin' me sleepy…"

"I know what you mean," he agreed, closing his eyes and letting his head rest on Galo's chest, his legs still hanging off the bed. "That's the most I've eaten since we left." It was sweet, the woman (she introduced herself as Mrs. Freeman, but didn't mention her first name) kept insisting he eat more, that he was too thin, loading up his plate with all sorts of different things. He wondered to himself, if maybe _his_ mother…

Galo's fingers in his hair changed the course of his thoughts, and he allowed it. "I'm surprised you don't suspect them of poisoning us," Galo mentioned lightly, almost laughing.

"Impossible. They're too damn nice." Galo had a point though. Another day, Lio might have been suspicious. But they must have won him over with their empathy towards the burnish, or even the vitriolic way the old man spat out Kray's name.

"Let's save their address. Do you think they celebrate Christmas? We should send them Christmas cards," Galo babbled sleepily, twirling Lio's hair around his finger. "Seriously, I'm tired. I think I'll sleep early… Then wake up early and run laps."

"Mm, sounds like a plan," Lio started to sit up and Galo whined, making grabby hands at him. With a laugh, Lio shrugged off his jacket and threw it over a chair, kicked his boots off next to the bed, and laid down on top of the covers beside Galo.

He was almost _positive_ that he knew how Galo felt for him. Sure, they weren't going to be taking Lucia's advice in some stranger's house no matter how overly friendly they were, but Galo still pulled him close, and Lio heard his breath stutter, and felt his pulse speed up.

With a long sigh, he closed his eyes again, and waited.

He was fine with waiting.

  
  
  
  


The Freemans gave them a ton of food for the road. It would really solve his issue with Lio not eating enough, and also it was delicious. Galo absolutely took a picture of the pie too. Sure, his future blog would mostly be about pizza, but he could still post about different types of pies other than pizza pies now and then. When he told Lio that, he got a very dramatic eyeroll in response.

Lio didn't stop them to use his own bike that day - he kept hold of Galo's waist and told him to keep driving along the same road. When he was sure they were alone, he let flames burst around them, warning Galo each time by tightening his grip so they wouldn't end up crashing. It was an interesting change, but he didn't think Lio would go for it normally. The highway they followed just seemed busier than the empty desert roads they started out on.

They found an abandoned gas station the next night, where Lio looked at old maps of the area and traced lines to see where they were going. Of course, the old maps were way out of date, but a lot of larger cities would still exist. After the first blaze, if foundations survived, it was easier to rebuild than just start somewhere new.

The Old Capitol was the current name for the city that had bloomed around the ruins of what was once called DC. The government buildings had moved inland in recent years, but the old structures that were restored, or the few that survived, were treated less like memorials and more like public spaces.

Tourism wasn't a big thing anymore, but even so, there were a bunch of people that looked even more out of place than Galo and Lio did. Since Lio had admitted that he hadn't been there before, they did a little bit of sightseeing at Galo's insistence. Crumbling monuments, a spire-shaped one that had snapped in half and lay across a wide field of grass, temporary patchwork repairs on the fancy domed buildings. Galo guessed the damage must have been from all of the volcanic activity before he and Lio saved the world. It was inspiring to see the world rebuilding though.

They'd arrived early, which meant Lio wouldn't want to stay, but Galo talked him into lunch and hunted down a pizza joint (of course).

"I don't have unlimited funds for this, you know," Lio looked so annoyed at him, sitting across the table, chin resting in his hand.

Galo froze in place, holding his second slice from the second pizza he'd ordered. "...Lio, you're… You're saving your receipts, right?"

"What?"

"We're traveling on the job, so this counts as a business expense. You get reimbursed."

"... _What._ "

"Oh my god. You didn't know?" Judging by Lio's horrified expression, he definitely didn't. Galo put down his slice and covered his mouth. "For once, _you're_ the dumb one!"

"I don't even believe you!" Lio bristled, looking offended as a wet cat. Galo laughed harder. "Shut it! There's no way that's true!" He argued, pulling out his phone to call Ignis and stepping outside.

Galo watched his face through the window at the front of the shop, with ever-growing amusement. Amazing. It was understandable that Lio wouldn't know about it since he'd been avoiding this kind of bureaucratic nonsense almost all of his life, but Galo couldn't help teasing.

Lio stormed back in two minutes later and ordered an entire white pizza for himself, with a pout on his face. "Not a word," he hissed, and Galo did his best to hold it back. He tried.

"I can't believe you didn't know!" He blurted out with a wide, unrepentant grin after roughly three seconds of silence. "Wait, is this why you were rationing food so much? _Shit_ , Lio!"

Lio kicked him under the table instead of responding, and stole a slice of Galo's pizza with the grouchiest, most embarrassed face he'd ever worn. He was _so cute_ when he was caught off-guard like that. The only problem was, if Galo didn't change the subject, they'd eat the rest of their meal in complete, cranky silence, and he couldn't have that.

"So, do you know where the next piece is?" He gave Lio a few minutes to cool off before asking.

Lio started eating his pizza before it had cooled to a normal, human level, and the cheese was still gooey enough that it stretched from the slice to his mouth and seriously, Lio was just being inhumanly cute. Galo kept that to himself and handed Lio a napkin instead.

"It's that way," Lio said, pointing in the direction of the kitchens.

"In the kitchen?" Galo knew that was stupid, but it somehow came out of his mouth anyway.

"No, idiot. It feels like it's a few buildings over. Maybe in that collapsed one on the next block."

"Huh! I didn't realize we were that close." Galo took another bite, then snapped a photo of the pizza pans on the table.

"What's the rating?" Lio decided to ask, though Galo couldn't tell if he was actually interested.

"I'd say a seven out of ten. Good, but Inferno Volcano Margherita Megamax sets a high bar! They use way too much cheese here, too."

Lio half-smiled, then reached across the table with a napkin to wipe sauce from Galo's chin. "If you think this is too much cheese… Well, I'm worried about taking you some places up north."

"It's all about balance," Galo folded his arms and nodded authoritatively. Lio flicked him in the forehead before he could go on to explain what he meant. But Galo was not deterred by Lio's moodiness, and forged on, explaining the perfect ratio of cheese, sauce, crust and toppings. How neapolitan-style is just the best, and how pineapples are _sometimes_ good, depending on how they were prepared (searing it _before_ putting it on the pizza and baking)!

Sometimes Lio drowned him out, but he seemed to actually be listening, which was really nice. But he did run out of steam eventually, and they had the leftovers packed up and they went on their way, leaving the bike parked out front for the time being.

"Is it buried in the rubble here?" Galo watched Lio climb on top of a slab of concrete to get a better view.

"No, I see it," He said, hopping down and climbing over bent support beams and the fallen roof. He returned to Galo's side with the piece in his hand. "Can't use it here. There's people around," He reminded Galo quietly, urging him back to the bike so they could leave.

"Alright. Where to next, then?"

"It's… not too far. Maybe five hours?" Lio guessed. "South of here."

"Well, hopefully it's near a hotel. It's gonna be getting dark by then," Galo thought aloud, storing their leftovers and climbing on the bike, leaving Lio plenty of room behind him. The shard was tightly clenched in Lio's hand, and it felt as though it was burning Galo's side.

Once they'd traveled a decent distance from the city and the buildings thinned out to nothing, Lio tapped him to tell him to stop. The road was mostly empty, and the surroundings were just some distant forest, tall grass, a rusted sign with the number 17 on it, and an abandoned house with a caved-in porch and an old barn behind it. "This is far enough for now. Hold on."

Lio held the stone up and stared at it, looking for something in it. Then he shuddered and Galo wondered if he could do anything to help, but when he tried to get closer, Lio held up his hand to keep his distance.

"Come with me?" He said to the promare quietly, and as ever, it ignited. As he'd seen Lio do before, he breathed in the fire. It was a little different this time, though, when Lio collapsed.

Galo caught him, but he felt like magma in his arms, like he'd either slip out of them or burn right through them. "Shit! Lio, c'mon, are you okay?"

There wasn't a verbal answer yet, he just cringed and tried to make Galo let him go, but of course that didn't work.

"Talk to me, what's going on?"

Lio opened his mouth, but said nothing, just let out a hissing whimper. Pain? It looked that way. In spite of how hot it was, Galo kept cradling Lio's body until he closed his eyes, and finally lost consciousness.

  
  
  
  


When Lio woke, Galo had set up camp on his own, sans campfire. It was clearly very late, stars were glittering brightly overhead and it was dark as it could be on land. He saw Galo only because of the light on his cell phone, a good bit more distance between them than he was used to at night.

He knew he'd have to explain what happened, and wasn't looking forward to it. He'd been careless.

"You're up!" Galo cheered, propping himself up and using his phone screen as a lantern. Lio, mercifully, lit a fire so they could see. "How are you feeling?"

"...Overheated. But I'm sure you figured that out," He said, running a hand through his hair tiredly.

"Sure, but is it going to be okay? Is this like a burnish version of catching a cold, or something we actually need to worry about?"

"I hate to say it, but I don't know for sure," Lio confessed. "I think my body just needs to adjust to all of them, and I haven't been giving them enough to burn."

"All of… Wait, how many were in you before?"

"Just the one, I think? I never really had the chance to get to know it as a living being before. Just as a fire inside of me," he noted with regret.

"And how many do you have now?"

"Ten."

"Lio!"

He flinched, and Galo moved closer to him.

"What's going to happen to you, then? Can we-- I don't know, _remove_ them?"

"No," Lio snapped, "I won't have anyone experimenting on me over this. Whatever happens, happens. I brought it on myself."

"I'm not suggesting we carve you up, I'm suggesting we _keep you safe_!" Galo argued. "If your body can't handle it, what happens? Could you be hurt more by it? Could you--" A pained pause that made Lio feel guilty "--Could you turn to ash?"

Lio carefully adjusted his temperature, reaching over to touch the side of Galo's face fondly, in a way he hoped was reassuring. "I just need to burn off the energy soon. I'm not used to holding back, I never have before."

To his surprise, Galo leaned into the touch, but it was subtle because he was still furious, or scared, or something. After allowing it for a few more seconds, he stood and started digging through the bike's storage, pulling out his ice gun. "Then we're fixing this now. Controlled burn. I'll make sure it doesn't spread."

"Galo…"

"No arguing. You're starting a fire and I'm putting it out. Simple as that."

Lio stared at him for a moment, then sighed, resigned. It couldn't hurt to try. He didn't have to spread the flames out, he could instead focus on burning them all together, hotter and condensed. They might not like it, but he didn't hear any resistance from them either. "Okay," Lio finally agreed, standing and looking around. "I think inside that barn will be the best bet to keep hidden from the road, just in case."

He extinguished the campfire but let little wisps light their way, and he started unbuttoning his shirt. Galo followed him rather closely behind, so he tossed it in his direction, getting a baffled "Huh?" in response.

"I have a lot to burn off. My clothes wouldn't survive." He continued undressing, not checking Galo's reaction (out of embarrassment), and handing off each article of clothing as he removed it. Once he'd positioned himself in the center of the barn, he lit himself on fire.

From the soles of his feet to his scalp, it felt like relief, but also an intense pain. Burning himself for the promare wore down their energy faster; they restored him just as fast as skin could possibly blister, but that ate away at their heat as well. Weaker flames fell dormant as he used them up. There was a familiar prickling sensation, like his limbs were falling asleep. Fires licked the wounds they caused apologetically, and he heard their voices whispering without words.

They were sorry for the burden they'd put on him. They wanted to help care for him, too.

He kept them as close to his body as possible, as if he could keep the fires trapped in a cage, but as he poured more energy into it the heat grew to such a level that natural fire started to catch around him, threatening to spread. True to his word, Galo snuffed them out as quickly as they appeared, and Lio relaxed just a little more.

The ground was melting under him, molten between his toes. He could go hotter, but he'd risk the whole place going up. It still might have, so he was thankful to have Galo watching out for him. The flames kept going until they told him it was enough, then they slowly began easing up on him, so the shock of them suddenly stopping wouldn't hurt his skin, tender with burns and mending quickly.

Once done, he looked down at his hands, waiting for the wounds to heal (which took about a second of time, nothing at all), with those wisps of light returning so that he could see. With caution, Galo approached and handed him his clothes. He was red in the face and had his head turned away, which was equal parts cute and pathetic.

"Galo," Lio murmured, getting his attention. Couldn't pretend it wasn't awkward, but he did want to address something. "I burned you, didn't I?"

"No, you kept it all wrapped up around you pretty well, I think!" Galo didn't meet his eyes. His voice cracked.

"When you caught me earlier. I know I was burning, so it must've hurt you."

"Hey, nothing a firefighter can't handle!" Galo took on that boisterous, cocky tone, and still didn't look at him.

Lio reached up, grabbed his face, and pulled him down to meet his mouth.

Galo was too stunned to move.

Even more stunned as fire crept down his throat, searing hot, but also sweet, and not painful at all. Lio's fire would never hurt him, he trusted that even if the fire wasn't the exact same as before.

Lio's hands were still on his face, holding him more gently now. Galo's own hands moved instinctively to Lio's waist, reminding him that Lio was still _fantastically_ naked, and this was just the most awkward moment they'd ever had between them, and yet it would've been wrong to reject it. So… he didn't. He breathed in the fire Lio offered between soft lips, until Lio pulled away.

"Wh--what was that for!?" Galo sputtered, almost biting his tongue.

Lio had already turned around and started hurriedly putting on clothes again. He was inhumanly quick with those leather pants, and ordinarily Galo would've been impressed, but he was trying his best not to stare. Once at least that half of him was covered, he slipped his shirt over his shoulders without buttoning it up and turned to face Galo again, reaching to touch his arm. "Did it work?"

"Did what--" He followed Lio's line of sight. "...Oh."

"I wasn't sure it would work," Lio said with a dull smile, "I've only ever done this for burnish… But they really did heal you."

The burns weren't that bad. They'd felt like a sunburn at worst, so it had been completely unnecessary, and bad for his heart. But Lio was right, they were gone.

"I'm glad. I don't know first aid like you do. I need to be able to take care of you if something happens to you," Lio continued, looking up at him. His eyes looked damp. "It can't always be you saving me."

"You've saved me plenty." Galo said honestly. Lio had protected him with his fire before, and he'd done so much to protect his mental state since they'd started living together. He was hesitant, but he reached forward and brushed Lio's bangs back, and kissed his forehead.

Lio's expression changed. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't.

Before he allowed them to get awkward about it, Galo changed the subject. "Oh. There's one of your scars!" He traced a thumb above Lio's eyebrow. It was small, but it must have felt significant to Lio, against his otherwise flawless skin. Nobody would've noticed unless they were staring, and Galo was an expert at staring at Lio, so of course he saw it. "Where's the other one?"

Lio gave a startled, incredulous half-laughter and went back to righting his clothes. "You had the perfect chance to get an eyeful, you know."

"Hey! I'm a gentleman!"

"I wouldn't have been," Lio told him, stepping outside again to return to where Galo had laid out the sleeping bags.

Galo needed an extra couple of seconds to recover from _that_ statement before he could follow. He looked behind him one more time, using his phone as a flashlight, and examined the scorch marks on the ground; more than scorch marks, the ground had straight-up melted. He wondered if that was the kind of intense heat Lio had dealt with before, or if it was a new byproduct of having ten times the usual amount of parasitic fire aliens attached to him.

It had been bright, like staring into the sun.

He knew he had to trust Lio, but that was going to be more difficult now that he knew Lio had hidden his condition to the point of collapse.

It damaged the part of him that believed Lio was genuine when he was being flirtatious like that. He couldn't know everything Lio was hiding from him, and it hurt.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And it continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Stealthily ups the chapter count*
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/covetedthrone)

  
  
  
  


"Yes, I understand."

Lio hadn't been able to make the check-in call the night before, so naturally, Galo had done it, and shared way more than he needed to.

No. That wasn't a fair assessment. Galo had shared what he thought to be vital; Lio had passed out suddenly and was burning up. Galo had every right to be scared for him. The only _real_ problem Lio had with his sharing that information was that the only so-called 'expert' they had on burnish physiology was, of course, someone he couldn't stand.

Heris had access to all of Kray's research data. She had all the information she needed to tell them what Lio already suspected: he was overburdened. He was risking his life.

So during the morning call to check on Lio's status, Ignis chewed him out so thoroughly that Lio was actually cowed. It was decidedly _not_ a feeling he was used to, and he wasn't _going_ to get used to it, either. People didn't boss Lio Fotia around.

But Ignis was technically his boss now, so the conflicting feelings and information would spark unrest in his mind until he could completely wrap his head around how to deal with it.

Ignis told him, in no uncertain terms, that Lio was not to take in another one of the promare pieces under any circumstances. "Secure that last one - _contain_ it, I don't care if it's in tupperware, it just better not be stored inside of you. Then you both come back immediately."

"...Of course."

He could agree, but he didn't have to enjoy it.

He didn't want to die, of course, but it wasn't about that. He'd put himself on the line countless times already, and he just wanted to help. The truly weird thing about it was feeling the reactions of the flames inside of him as he took in the information. It felt as though they were worried, scared, and sad. It made sense that among ten of them, there would be a spectrum of emotions, but feeling them all at once, outside of his own thoughts and feelings, was disorienting.

The loudest voice among them gave off a feeling of protection. So, more or less, he could believe things would be okay for now. He just had to find a way to send them home, so he could keep gathering them together.

"Then we're done here. Don't miss your call tonight unless you've dropped dead, got it?"

"Fine," Lio relented, and ended the call.

Letting Galo listen hadn't exactly been a mistake, but he saw the unease in his face when he turned to him. He owed him more than he'd been giving, couldn't brush it off as nothing.

"I know I'll be okay, Galo," is what he settled on.

"I wish I knew that."

Lio flinched. He supposed he'd earned the distrust. "I see…"

Galo sighed, and stood to dust himself off and start packing things up again. "S'okay. I'm used to not knowing anything."

"Galo!" Lio jolted, back on his feet before he knew what he wanted to say. "Look, I'm _sorry_ I didn't tell you, but the truth is that I wasn't even fully aware of it until last night. I'm not out here looking to die, okay?"

"So, what, ten was the magic number? Nothing was wrong before that?" Galo looked unconvinced, but that also sounded like a sincere question, so Lio treated it as such.

"...It has more to do with the individual strength and energy levels of each promare. They're not all the same." Lio answered softly, "And I thought something _might_ be wrong, but we were in a populated area, I figured they were just pent up. That was my mistake."

Galo was scrutinizing him, his facial expressions, little gestures, and he could feel it as though Galo's gaze could burn him. He let it happen, knowing how necessary it was to regain Galo's trust.

...Well, no, it _wasn't_ necessary. Lio just _wanted_ his trust. Wanted a lot more, too, but trust came first. So he hoped Galo liked what he saw then.

"You'd better be right," Galo spoke without any of his usual energy. "I have to say, I prefer the way we fought before we became friends."

"Physically?"

"Yeah. Easier to figure out who wins if it's decided by fists, y'know?"

Lio smiled despite himself. "There's some truth in that. Even so, I don't want to fight you. I don't even want to win." Not that he knew what winning would even mean in that argument, but it didn't really matter. He was on the defensive, anyway.

"Good, 'cause you wouldn't." Galo was really bad at rolling the sleeping bags up to store them, so Lio helped him finish packing them up. "You know we're mad because we care about you, right?"

Lio said nothing, and didn't look at him. He had a feeling that wasn't really the end of that statement.

"And it freaks me out, because I can tell you want to keep at this even knowing the risks. You're more stubborn than I am."

Lio pulled a drawstring tight on the sleeping bag case, tossing it into the storage compartment. "Good thing you're here to keep me in line, then." He hadn't _meant_ to sound bitter about it. He wasn't being insincere. Sure, he didn't want to slow down like this, but he didn't blame Galo, or Ignis, or anyone else. It was just unfortunate, and it was irritating. "Sorry," he hurried to say, meeting Galo's eyes to make sure he hadn't done too much damage. "I thought I had the answer, and I don't. I'm frustrated. I need to find another solution."

"Excuse you. _We_ need to find another solution. You're not cutting me or any of the team out."

He didn't think they'd be able to help. Gueira and Meis might, maybe. Heris was a big maybe. As horrible as the idea was, even Kray might have some knowledge that would help - he'd kept his fires contained for so long, that kind of resistance had to have put some sort of strain on him, unless he had a way to counter it. But, no surprise, Lio would _not_ be asking him for help even though apparently his life might depend on it.

Accepting the support was bound to frustrate him more. Even if people had ideas, he'd end up having to explain why they wouldn't work. None of these people he'd agreed to work with knew a _thing_ about the burnish except the worst among them.

"I won't cut you out," Lio finally agreed. "But in this case, it's not something you can help with. The most I can ask of you is to help with damage control."

To effectively end the conversation, Lio sat on the back of Galo's bike and waited for him to get on so they could leave. They were almost to the ocean; he hoped they could see it before they had to turn around.

  
  
  
  


The problem with following old roads is that sometimes, they came to old bridges. Old bridges tended to collapse when nobody was keeping an eye on their upkeep. About halfway across an enormous river, the road cracked and went right into the water.

It continued a little later, but with the middle of it gone, it was a frustrating fact that they'd have to turn around. The supplies were all on the bike, and the bike couldn't swim even if Lio and Galo could.

Lio stood in front of him, staring at the other end of the collapse. "We can make it," he announced. With a sweep of his hand, fire condensed into a black sheet beneath them and the bike, raising them about a foot off the ground "Hold onto me."

Through his shock, Galo managed to follow the instruction, and Lio launched them into the air together. The fire under them mimicked level ground, but there was just enough give to tell that it wasn't, and that it was taking effort on Lio's part to keep it together so that they could be moved all at once.

He had his arms around Lio's shoulders and midsection, and though his attention wasn't quite on that, the back of his mind acknowledged that he enjoyed it.

He thought he'd seen Lio fly before, alone, in the distance. Alongside a helicopter. He kind of assumed that the helicopter had caught fire maybe, or something like that, but he knew better than to underestimate Lio's abilities with fire now. The telltale spectrum of burnish colors were bursting around them and trailing behind, but Lio took care not to raise them too high. Galo guessed that was to avoid being seen.

Still, the view was beautiful over the river that morning. Sunlight glittered gold over the small waves, and they were in a section of the world that was never densely populated, so there were still old trees from before thirty years ago, tall forests beyond each shoreline. The world might look like that again someday, unlike the deserts that surrounded large cities after the blaze destroyed so much. The destruction came from people, so where people didn't live, the surroundings survived.

He leaned down a bit, and Lio's soft hair was blown against his face. Yep, it was like he was ascending to heaven. He dared to nuzzle closer. Lio didn't react outwardly, but he felt the fires stutter.

They flew for what must have been fewer than ten seconds, but it felt so much longer, and as they touched the ground he could barely tell, Lio had done it so softly. He must've had practice. Galo wondered if it would be okay to ask, and then he asked anyway, because excitement cancelled out what little filter he had, "Do you do that a lot? That's incredible!"

Lio looked up at him over his shoulder, kind of stuck in position until Galo finally remembered to let him go. "Carrying the bike is new. I've flown plenty, though. It feels nicer to me than it does to them," he answered, looking at his hands and the small sparks that were slowly going out. "Up high, the air gets thinner, and it's harder for them."

The answer was… dull. Not in an uninteresting way, but by Lio's voice, Lio's expression, he seemed lifeless. "Are you okay?"

"...Are you not upset with me anymore?"

Taken aback, Galo frowned and made a questioning noise.

"You sounded normal, so…" Lio looked down and his words drifted off. "...It's not important. I just have a lot to think about."

"If you really didn't know it would hurt you to do it, I can't be mad at you for it," Galo glanced away. "If everything was fine up 'til now, I understand why it happened."

He hadn't promised to believe everything he said, but apparently he'd said _something_ right. Lio's arms wound around his waist, hugging tightly; a complete surprise, but Galo still reciprocated with a good level of enthusiasm. He was barely audible, crushed against Galo's chest like that, but he did hear Lio say "I care what you think, Galo. I don't want to jeopardize--"

"We're fine." Galo said, trying to sound as definitive as possible. "I know you can't always tell me everything. But just keep me in the loop on this, okay?" If he could've reached, he might have tried that forehead-kiss thing Lio hadn't seemed to mind the night before. Just to let him know they'd be fine.

Lio kept holding him long enough for him to re-think that plan though. It was probably a little too forward anyway.

"I know I don't know much, but I wanna help."

"...You know, Galo," Lio started, pulling apart from him. "You might be able to do more than I've assumed. Even if you've never been a burnish, your brain is a mysterious thing."

"Is that praise or an insult?"

"Neither. I always provided an escape route when I burned buildings, but I never thought someone like you would exist. I'd been mistaken from the start. You grin and bear it, you don't look for safety."

"...Sounds a bit like an insult."

"It's not. You just have a unique perspective."

"...Definitely an insult," Galo couldn't prove it, but he thought it was a tease. Lio was probably also being sincere, but there had to be more to it than that. Regardless, Galo was a good sport about being insulted, and he knew Lio wasn't being cruel. 

"I promise you, it's not," Lio tried not to laugh, and failed. "You're just different. Gun to your head, if someone told you to choose between saving one person and saving the world, somehow you'd still say 'both'."

"It's not that weird. You'd find a way to do it, too." The air was much improved between them, so Galo grinned at him and got back on the bike. "If the bridge is out, there's not going to be any traffic around here," he changed the subject, hopefully to something more helpful, "So you can get away with using fire as much as you need."

"Hearing you say something like that really helps me know you trust me," Lio smiled at him and he was blinded, just like when he went all supernova the night before. It was said in a teasing manner, but it was also a fair point. Trusting someone with fire was certainly a big deal to Galo. "I'm going to do my good deed for the day, I think."

Before Galo could ask, he stepped to the edge of the bridge and closed his eyes in concentration. The water started to steam, and burnish fire surrounded the crumbling remains that had fallen in, hugging them and sculpting them into that shiny black material like Lio's armor, fixing between each broken edge and completing the bridge once more, all melting together. It took him a while, and he looked tired after it, but Galo felt a weird twinge of pride in his heart, seeing Lio do something so needlessly helpful. It'd be ages before anyone noticed, but it was still a kind thing to do. He probably could have done that instead of the flying thing before, honestly. Maybe he hadn't thought of it?

He made Lio sit in front of him when they got back on the road, just in case that tiredness, and a loosening grip, was something he'd have to worry about. It was a pretty intense display of strength back there, following the night before; if that was the kind of energy he needed to burn off, they were definitely in some kind of trouble.

But it was nice having Lio leaning against his chest tiredly for the next couple of hours. Great, even. If he could just ignore the way his heart stopped every time he dared look to check on him, that would've been even better.

  
  
  
  


After passing an enormous military checkpoint (that had Lio incredibly nervous, until they were waved through without any difficulty), they drove into what had been renamed "Neptune City" in recent years, and sat on the oceanfront, almost completely full of tall buildings and well-dressed people. It almost rivaled Promepolis, but Lio could still see scars of the first blaze carved into the shape of the city, they hadn't been covered up so meticulously like Kray Foresight had done. The most noteworthy, and beautiful in Lio's opinion, was a large wall with thousands of name plaques, and "We Honor The Memory Of Those Lost To The Blaze" engraved into black marble at the top.

In front of the shore were homes that weren't built for cities that demonized burnish people, made of classic materials that would burn swiftly, for at least a dozen blocks. Then started rows of shiny new buildings that looked like hotels, but tourism couldn't be _that_ good, could it? He guessed it was just ritzy apartments, or maybe it had something to do with the huge military base.

Without saying anything, Galo already knew to look for beach access. Lio did say he wanted to take him there, at the start of this trip, so they ought to see it once before gathering the promare and heading back to Promepolis. The schedule had tightened, but even if Ignis had used the word "immediately", they would follow the order loosely. No major detours, but it wasn't as though they could drive through the nights without sleep. They'd make stops when they needed.

There were public beaches close to an open-air farmer's market, which was obnoxiously tempting, but they still had enough food to keep them going for the rest of the trip, so it wasn't necessary. There was even a couple selling honey - _honey_! Honey was rare, and wonderful because it kept forever and was great for flavoring bland food. Most areas just had a cheap honey substitute that didn't taste like anything but sugar and glue, but there was a lot of vegetation in this area, so it made sense that they'd still have honeybees.

"Something you want?" Galo's voice cut through the noise in his head and he looked up at him, a little dazed.

He shook his head, "Nothing we need."

"Won't hurt to look, will it?" Galo pushed. "Are you doing that thing where you're rationing our food like you're still on the run?"

"No, I'm not," Lio told him dryly. "We're just running out of places to store things, thanks to needing to fill your bottomless pit of a stomach."

"Then I'll have enough space cleared for whatever we want later! No harm in browsing."

"Idiot," Lio chided him, with a soft smile. "Let's go see the water."

He grabbed for Galo's hand, and was startled when he-- missed? Had Galo pulled his hand away or was he just too tired to aim properly? Nevertheless, Galo seemed to figure out what he was doing and reddened, grasping his hand tightly. He must have imagined it. He hoped he imagined it. The idea of Galo rejecting him had crossed his mind before, but… No, it wouldn't be like that.

If Galo rejected him, he'd do it kindly. He wouldn't choose his words carefully, but his actions would speak far louder, and would be gentle. He'd let someone down easy, and with a casual affection that he showed all of his friends.

The wind whipped off of the shoreline and took those thoughts far away, thankfully. With the water in sight, no land on the other side of it, a lot of other things filled him. The promare offered their own perspectives, with fears and worries and awe at the size of the world, and knowing how long it would take for Lio in his limited, human body to travel all of it. Sadness that some of their brethren could be somewhere under all of that water.

And indeed, that _was_ where the next voice was coming from. Lio could… _somewhat_ swim. He could stay afloat, at least. He hadn't needed to do any swimming in the middle of the country, and his burnish abilities being strong enough that he could fly made swimming obsolete anyway. He walked closer to the water, Galo's hand in his and not letting go, and knelt in front of the dampened sand, where the thinnest edges of the waves touched him. The shore was moderately crowded, so he couldn't _creatively_ acquire the piece.

He felt Galo release his hand and glanced back, seeing him admiring a sandcastle two children were building with their mother. He called Lio over to see it, and Lio allowed himself the distraction.

"They were just telling me about a yearly sandcastle contest! Doesn't that sound awesome?"

Lio raised an eyebrow at him.

One of the children loudly corrected him, "Nooo, they don't only make castles!! They make lotsa things."

"Like what?"

"Like Neptune statues!" The child pointed at a big statue between two of the tall buildings. They couldn't see it clearly from this distance, but it appeared to be a muscular, bearded man holding a trident.

"Every year, there's a gathering on the beach with all the schools in the area, and they come up with some new thing to make out of sand," the mother explained while helping the younger of her children lift up a shaped bucket like a mold for making tiny ramparts around the castle. "Ever since I was born, there was a small team of burnish who would pick the winner and melt the sand to make it keep its shape. I wonder what they'll do this year… Probably just a cash prize… Too bad, it was always such a fun spectacle."

She spoke like she was entirely unsurprised they weren't from anywhere near there - in Promepolis it would be impossible to even know unless told. Lio had gotten away with a great deal of snooping around in the city before undetected, but apparently in this city, he was obvious, and it didn't even matter. They did have a decent amount of tourism, then.

Galo looked positively starstruck, "Really? They had the burnish do that?"

"Oh, there was still some burnish discrimination, as everywhere else, but there were programs in place to keep everything peaceful," She explained, "So I could stay with my children, provided I wore identification and attended weekly meetings."

"So the burnish here are adjusting well to the change?" Lio asked, perhaps a bit too eagerly.

"Easier than it was for you, I'm sure." She gave a knowing smile and a nod. "I thought you looked familiar."

"Whoa, Lio, you're famous." Galo grinned at him, toothy and obnoxious. Lio elbowed him.

The woman chuckled. "We get worldwide news here - mostly to make visitors feel connected. News coming out of Promepolis was of particular interest this year."

Lio felt his face warm as he took stock of the woman's appearance. She seemed out-of-place in her own way, in a sweater while her children wore swimwear. She wore no ring, but her ring finger sported an ugly, ugly burn scar left from flames melting metal into skin. Her story interested him, but he wasn't going to pry. "What do they do with the sand-statues, after solidifying them?" he decided to ask instead.

"They used to stay on the beach, but now they're sent to the winning schools. They can be massive though, and difficult to move around."

She told a story about the time she was on the burnish team that immortalized a winning statue of bursts of waves and sealife artfully pouring out of a giant hand, and Galo was inspired to try sculpting something too. He was, unsurprisingly, quite bad at it. The children eventually helped him make a semi-passable castle, but he kept trying to give it features of castles from the far east, explaining the architecture to the confused-but-excitable kids.

Lio saved around seven pictures on his phone of the work in progress, and one picture Galo actually knew about and posed for with a big smile and thumbs up.

"You're going to get a sunburn if you aren't careful," Lio warned him, about to suggest they track down some sunscreen, but then Galo whipped his shirt off instead and anything he wanted to say died in his throat.

"May as well get it evenly, then!" (It wouldn't be even, he was still wearing that sleeve.)

Lio sighed deeply, trying to hide how flustered that made him by rubbing his palm over his face.

  
  
  
  


They stayed until the sun set behind them. Galo waved bye to the family who'd kept him and Lio entertained all that time, and then dropped to sit beside Lio, looking over the darkening horizon. He could still kind of pick up on the weird mood Lio was in, but it wasn't a _bad_ mood so he wasn't going to get pushy about it. He was probably still tired. Or maybe hungry.

"I guess this is the last stop on our journey, huh?" He asked, leaning back on his hands.

Lio took a deep breath. "We'll keep journeying after this, don't you think?" He sounded hopeful.

"Of course!" Galo beamed, glad to get that kind of confirmation that Lio was actually enjoying this. He used to travel in large groups, not as just a duo, at least as far as Galo knew. And he never used to have so much oversight. "Should we go ahead and call now, so we don't forget?"

Lio looked up and down the shore before he nodded, pulling his phone back out. The beach was almost empty then, most people who were still there were distracted and packing up their things.

Galo scooted closer, getting into the frame.

This time, Aina answered, sounding overly sweet and stressed at once. "You guys are almost ready to turn around, right?"

"That's a unique greeting," Lio mused. "Yeah. The last one I can sense out here is nearby. I just need to figure out how to get to it."

Galo hadn't realized that, and felt a little bad. Maybe that was why Lio seemed so tired and thoughtful. "Why? Where is it? Are you too short to reach it?"

Lio punched him in the shoulder and hissed the word "idiot" at him while Aina almost fell out of her seat laughing. "It's in the _water_ , stupid!"

"Oh, be nice to Galo, he's doing his best!"

It was okay though, Lio hadn't hurt him. "How deep, do you think?" He asked, rubbing his shoulder. He'd definitely burned a little.

"Deep enough that even if you're a good swimmer, I'm not sure you'd find it," Lio explained. "If there weren't so many people, I could just use fire and dig right in, but I'd definitely be seen." Lio had left one part out, but Galo figured that he was trying not to admit he wasn't a strong swimmer. Or maybe he couldn't swim at all, which sounded like a fun future project for them, honestly.

"I see your dilemma… Well, hang in there for now, and I'll check to see if anyone has ideas. You can find a place to stay for the night, right?" Aina twirled hair around her finger thoughtfully, "Things have been a little crazy here. We tracked down and contained a really volatile promare-thing, and there were two earthquakes today, so we're all a little scattered."

"Earthquakes? Is everyone okay?" Galo meant 'everyone in the city', but he hadn't communicated that too well. Luckily, Aina understood him well enough to pick up on it.

"Yeah, they weren't big, but there were a few injuries downtown, near the crash site."

Galo felt relieved, but Lio was looking contemplative, and a little weird.

"Can you tell me about the volatile one?" Lio asked, with urgency in his voice.

"Uh… well, we can't exactly hear them like you do. When we asked your men what they heard, they said it sounded like it was feral or something, they couldn't make it out. It just keeps catching on fire, so we have it suspended in some flame retardant fluid for now." Lio's face changed through the explanation, and Galo worried just a bit - Lio would want to help it.

To be fair, though, Galo would feel bad leaving it like that too, even though he had a lot less sympathy for the promare than Lio did. It was hard to empathize with something he couldn't understand, after all, but he did like them somewhat; thanks to Lio's wishes, they'd done a lot to protect Galo before. And he couldn't deny that watching Lio act with them was amazing, and sometimes even hypnotic.

"You're banned from it, though," Aina added, "Until we figure out how to stabilize what's going on with you, Ignis said you can't mess with these things anymore."

Lio looked so ready to argue, but Galo put an arm around him to throw him off, hoping it'd give him a few extra seconds to think it through and not get defensive about it. Ignis only made that rule to keep him safe. Aina was following that rule to keep him safe. Lio ought to follow that rule for the same reason.

"I know you don't like it," Aina said with a gentle sympathy, picking up that she'd upset him, "but Lucia and my sister are working on ideas. We're all trying to come up with something, but I think the mad scientists are our best bet."

"...I understand," Lio agreed quietly. Galo didn't like seeing him this way.

"We should go find somewhere to stay for the night," he cut in, intending to end the call.

"Oh. Good luck guys, we'll call you if we have any news."

Lio didn't say anything like a goodbye, but nodded and hung up.

The sound of the waves was relaxing in a way that Galo wasn't used to. The idea of leaning closer to Lio was all the more tempting by the minute. "You really hate not being the boss, huh?"

"It's not that I hate it," Lio tried to argue.

"Every time you get told what to do, you get all… sullen?" He had to fish that word out of his limited vocabulary, he thought he used it right. "I get it though. You were in charge before all this. It's a big change."

It was hard to miss how snippy he could get with authority figures, and how he didn't like following a chain of command. He used to fight for freedom, after all. He was the only burnish in the world, so the burnish weren't living as freely as Lio would've probably liked.

"I don't… hate the support," Lio said, basically confirming Galo's suspicions. "It's not easy to work within a system that oppressed my kind, though." He'd drawn his knees up and folded his arms over them, looking smaller than normal.

"So, if you were in charge, how would this go?" Galo ventured, both curious and worried for the answer.

"...I'd probably push myself too hard and die," Lio answered way too frankly. "Or it might have been fine. This underwater piece would still pose a problem, though."

He tried to brush the first thing Lio said off, because he knew it was useless to get into an argument about it (Lio probably hadn't even answered all that seriously. He couldn't _seriously_ expect Galo to be okay with that answer), and moved on to the rest. "Reaching it underwater, you mean?" He waited for a confirmation, and when Lio nodded he hummed thoughtfully. "Remember when you were a giant, angry dragon?"

"...That never happened."

"Totally did! More or less. Didn't you make flames burst out from underground? Could you do that here?"

Lio smiled at him and ducked his head. "See? That's putting your unique brain to use."

"What! Rude!"

"I'm saying it's not a bad idea," Lio said, sounding very much like he was paying Galo an actual compliment. That felt bizarre. "There's no underground systems here for me to use, but I can work something out. Once it's darker, let's try it."

"Until then, wanna go for dinner?"

"Are you going to make me eat pizza again?"

The look of annoyance on Lio's face made Galo laugh at him.

"We should be careful where we go, though," Lio suddenly corrected, soberly. "If they get news from Promepolis here, plenty of people might have known about my arrest. I don't want to draw attention."

"Ah…" He hadn't thought of that. It had been one thing when they were in Promepolis, but this wasn't a place he was used to. Even if that woman before said that there'd been some level of burnish acceptance, that didn't mean that someone who knew Lio Fotia as a terrorist, and didn't catch the rest of the story, would be welcoming. "We could get takeout, if you want. Eat it on the boardwalk?"

Lio took a deep breath, looking out over the sea, and it struck Galo once again, for like the fiftieth time that day, that Lio is gorgeous. "I guess we can do that," Lio said, preventing Galo from blurting out something impulsive and dumb. He stood and dusted himself off, then offered his hand to Galo.

That was obviously unnecessary, but Galo took the offer anyway, wondering if he ought to keep holding on after he was standing.

Lio laced their fingers together again, staring down at their hands with a softened expression, and answered that thought for him.

  
  
  
  


The beach was empty around nine-thirty. They'd gotten food that was easy to eat while walking and ready to serve right away, and Lio was half-focused on a conversation and the other half of his thoughts went toward finding the spot closest to the promare, just to make the search easier. Somehow, Galo could manage to walk, eat, and talk at the same time, and maybe he should've been impressed by that. Or grossed out.

It was getting cloudy overhead, but the city had too many lights to really appreciate the stars. When he'd stopped them along the boardwalk, he looked out over the barely-lit waves, out into the pitch-black water, and ten different voices stirred in fear. It wasn't easy to settle them, but he tried.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Galo asked him after swallowing the last bite of his hot dog. "You've been really tired all day, haven't you?"

"It should be okay. If it's too much, we'll just stick around until tomorrow and I'll try again after I get more sleep. Sound good?" Getting approval for such a thing left an odd taste in his mouth, but he knew he needed it in this case. And he wanted approval, specifically from Galo.

"I can agree to that," he said with a nod, then added, "I'm not convinced you know how to stop before it's too much, though."

"I'm not _that_ bad!"

"Yes, you are."

Lio almost growled at him, but he wasn't… _entirely_ wrong. "Well, you'll be there with me, so I guess we'll see, won't we?"

"Hey," Galo said, "I know you're shouldering most of this on your own, but I'm here to support you, you know? If there's a way I can help you, I want to."

"You think you aren't?" Lio asked, puzzled. "You don't have to do anything more than you're already doing for me, Galo."

"I mean--" Galo looked flustered. "I mean, I don't know if it'd help, but if they're too much for you, you could do that thing, like when you protected me?"

"...You're going to have to find better words than that, I'm afraid."

"From Kray. When you gave me your fire to protect me from Kray."

So he was trying to avoid saying that name. Understandable. But the fact that he'd even thought of something like that struck a nerve, and Lio's eyes stung. "...You would hold a promare's fire, on the off chance it'd protect me?"

"Of course I would!"

"No, not that simple. You would carry it inside of you indefinitely? _Fire_?" Lio reached up to touch the side of Galo's face, affectionately and maybe too impulsive. "You, who sees a fire and puts it out?"

Galo's hand covered his and wrapped around it, fierce. "I'd never put yours out." The conviction in his eyes made Lio's heart skip _several_ beats.

But he softened, laughed lightly and pressed his forehead against Galo's collar, effectively hiding his face. He wouldn't inflict the promare on Galo if he could help it, but it was stupidly sweet of him to offer. It killed him, how badly he wanted this man. And because he loved him, handing him the source of his childhood trauma and making him carry it seemed too cruel. "A last resort," Lio finally agreed, still somewhat reluctant, but he thought it would make Galo glad to hear he was being relied on more.

Not that his words were empty. If he needed to somehow relieve himself of one or two of the promare, he would absolutely follow through, but only if it was a _need_. That wasn't even how it had worked before - he was still the one connected to the promare, but Galo had access to the flames, and the flames had a full will to protect him, following Lio's wishes. He couldn't be sure it would really help in the end, but it might, so he would keep it in mind.

"I should get started." He managed to pry himself away from Galo somehow, and hopped over the boardwalk railing rather than finding stairs.

Galo gave a noise of protest, but followed.

One last glance up and down the beach and Lio knelt in the sand, sparks in his hands that he forced into the earth as discreetly as he could manage. Waves crept closer, but didn't reach him.

He couldn't feel what the fires felt, but he pushed through as well as he could to guide them into the water from underneath the sands; without visibility it was difficult, but manageable. With enough force behind it, he could make his fires live through the water long enough to recover the piece.

The ground beneath him trembled, and it was easy enough to assume it was an unplanned side effect of his own actions. Just a little more…

Fires within him rejoiced when they made contact, wrapping themselves around it and ripping it back through the ground into Lio's hands, the force of it almost knocking him backwards. This one was enormous, jagged edges with sand digging deep into a crack on its side. He could pick up on fear from it, and tried his best to soothe it.

That spot where it had cracked, it worried him. But he stood and dusted it off, looking it over for any other signs of distress, and a flare lashed out at him.

"What--" He tried, cradling it to his chest and hoping the promare within him might be able to calm it. In his best attempt at being soothing, he managed to say "Stop that, I want to get you to safety, okay?"

Another flare, this time missing him completely and slashing the railing of the boardwalk behind him, severing the bars to a molten, glowing edge. The fires grew, and he began to panic.

"What's it doing?"

"I don't know." Lio leaned closer to it and spoke a little more firmly, " _Stop_ , I can't let you hurt anyone."

If he weren't burnish, his hands would have been completely burned off, and the fires began reaching for the rest of him. People would be able to see that. People could probably already see it, and if anyone came looking, they'd end up hurt by it. Who would've thought that the promare could have panic attacks?

He used his own fire, crystallizing it into a fresh container around the new piece, hoping to keep it contained long enough to get them out of the city. "We have to--"

It burst out, and Galo shouted something but Lio couldn't hear what, his ears ringing. This was dangerous, way too dangerous.

In a panic, running out of ideas, he breathed in the new fire.

For the next few seconds, his vision doubled, and he felt the buildup overpowering his body. The only thing that he could do was burn, and he had to hide it, so without a second thought he dashed into the water, pushing himself until he was at least deep enough to completely submerge himself, and allowing the flames to fizzle out in the waves. They came out every way they could; from his mouth, his tear ducts, his nose, right down to his pores, fire pushed forth and burned him and dissipated into the ocean.

It wasn't long before something - Galo's arm - wrapped around his midsection and yanked him out of the water, and Galo's voice, full of concern and possibly disappointment, finally reached him, "Did you burn it all off? Need to go back under?"

Lio didn't answer right away, trying to get a sense of it, himself. "I think I'm good," he said, voice hoarse, causing him to cough. He'd probably swallowed or inhaled some of the water.

"Then we're getting the hell out of here." He carried Lio out of the water over his shoulder and moved as quickly as he could back to the boardwalk, finding his bearings to get back to the bike. Lio didn't even try to get down, his limbs felt little better than pudding, the shape he was in.

Galo seated him in front on the bike and sped out of the city as quickly as he could manage.

  
  
  
  


Well past the outskirts of the city, there was a decent amount of mostly-empty land, which Galo figured was safest in case of another fiery outburst. Their clothes were almost dry by the time they got there, but he helped Lio dry off the rest of the way (he didn't need it, but he didn't stop Galo from doing it, either) and then changed his clothes as well. Saltwater left a weird sticky feeling behind, apparently. Couldn't say he liked it.

He was almost impressed with Lio rushing into the water like that, clearly intending to contain the fire. Unfortunately, it was really hard to be happy with the fact that he'd turned it up to _eleven_ of those fire aliens. He kept getting himself hurt. It was hard to sit by and watch that - on the other hand, he was sure that Lio was only pushing himself because he knew Galo would be there to pick up the slack for him when he needed, and that part felt a little nicer.

He knew why Lio had done it - he saw the thing trying to explode in his hands, and he probably didn't have any other choices in the heat of the moment, but it wasn't going to smooth things over with Ignis, and good intentions weren't going to fix him if he damaged himself beyond repair.

They'd talk this out. Maybe he could get Lio to pass some of the problem-aliens his way just to ease things up for himself.

"You still awake?" Galo asked, patting Lio's side. "It's looking like rain. I'll get the tent."

"Yeah, I'm awake," Lio muttered. He sounded tired still, and defeated. Not a nice sound for him.

Lio started a fire in what seemed to be a clear spot with a flick of his hand. Either of them could've set the tent up alone, but they both worked at it to get it done faster, and Galo laid out the sleeping bag fusion he'd put together; unraveled, it fit nice and snug in the little tent. Cozy.

He watched Lio stumble and hurried to catch him. "Will you be okay?"

"I swallowed water," Lio complained, "and I'm tired. Other than that, I'm probably fine."

'Probably' wasn't promising, but it was the best he'd get out of him. "Let's get to sleep, then. It's already late."

It was unnecessary, but he helped Lio out of his leathers (looking slightly damaged, but there'd been no helping that) so he could rest easier. And he held him close, thinking it might help reassure him that Galo understood what had happened and why, and that he had support whenever he wanted it.

Lio sighed and moved closer, their knees bumping together awkwardly and Lio's head under his chin, hair carrying an odd texture from the saltwater. "I'm sorry I disobeyed orders."

That was unexpected. Maybe that talk from earlier about his dislike for this sort of thing had left an impression, or maybe the thought of having to report this up the chain of command actually worried him. "I'll back you up," Galo told him, somewhat reluctantly. Seeing Lio take in that fire hadn't exactly been an ideal result. "It's not like we had a whole lot of choices."

Maybe the promare had freaked out because of the method they used to gather it? Whatever the reason, it was definitely out of Lio's control, and it could've hurt someone if he hadn't acted.

"I know this will be a mess to clean up, though," Lio added, taking a deep breath. Galo felt a tug on his clothes from Lio gripping his shirt.

"We've cleaned up worse messes."

With a huff of laughter, Lio hugged around him comfortably. "That's true."

"Yep! You don't have to take the heat by yourself. We'll both get scolded for a while, but it'll be fine." As he talked, he combed fingers through Lio's slightly tangled hair. It was getting longer; he'd been noticing that lately, and thinking he might offer to help out with it. Varys had thought to pack a trimmer for Galo, so he'd kept up with his own hair. Lio probably wasn't thinking about it much. To be fair, he didn't have to. He was pretty no matter what he did with his hair.

"I really can't stand the lectures," Lio noted, amused. "I assume you just zone out instead of listening, right?"

"Rude!" Galo immediately objected. "...But true."

"You're lucky you're cute, Galo."

Galo almost objected again, but that was a compliment, so he bit it back. An unusual one, but Lio just called him cute. _Lio_ called _him_ cute. "That's so backwards."

"Very, very lucky you're cute."

"Yeah, yeah. Go to sleep, you're talking nonsense."

He felt Lio laugh, didn't hear it. And then he waited, and Lio finally relaxed properly, dozing off, and Galo followed suit.

In the middle of the night, he woke up because Lio had started moving.

He coughed twice, body tense. He was warm, but that was normal. If he felt warmer than usual, that was expected. Lio had promised to keep him in the loop, so if there was something to worry about, he had no choice but to wait to be told.

He didn't wait long.

"Galo."

"Hm?" He pulled back just a few inches and looked down at Lio.

His heart sank. Lio looked _scared_. It wasn't a recognizable face on Lio, something Galo knew he'd ordinarily hide. Whether he trusted Galo enough to let him see it or whether he was genuinely scared enough to show it regardless of his presence, he couldn't discern.

"What's wrong?"

Lio held his hand out, and brought a small wisp of fire to light it up for Galo to see dark spots scattered on his palm. "When I coughed just now, it…" His breathing was labored, almost panicked. "Don't freak out-- I need to think." Those words sounded useless while he was, himself, freaking out.

It took a few more moments of confusion before the pieces clicked and he realized those dark spots were dampened _ashes_.

While he understood the need to _not_ panic, his impulses rejected that outright and he shot up, pulling Lio with him to look at him more carefully. He wasn't falling apart, that was at least something. But it was probably _worse_ if he was dying from the inside out. "Lio, give me what you can't handle."

For some reason, Lio looked unsure. "...Are you positive, Galo?"

"Damnit, of _course_ I am! If you have some problem with it, we can change it around and you can have Meis and Gueira help you instead when we get back. But yes, I'm positive! I want to help you!" His grip around Lio's wrists was possibly too tight. But seriously! Lio questioning him now was just beyond stupid. Way dumber than anything Galo would do.

"...Okay." Lio quietly agreed, still looking hesitant.

He had about a second and a half to process that there was fire on Lio's lips before he leaned closer to kiss him. Well, sort-of-kiss. It was debatable, like before. Fire poured into his throat again, less of a surprise this time, and he let go of Lio's wrists and moved to support his body, instead. Just in case.

Even though the fire was being pushed into him, he didn't feel much different. Warmer, but not _different._ He didn't know what he expected - when he'd 'borrowed' Lio's fire before, it hadn't really felt different either. He assumed that being a willing participant would change the way it worked, maybe.

As soon as Lio started to pull back, Galo blurted out "That's… not how you did it last time."

"No," Lio agreed, a tiny smile on his face. He stayed close. "But that's how I wanted to do it, this time."

Galo just stared at him, dumbly. He could tell he hadn't taken in the promare itself, he wasn't burnish, but he definitely felt the fire, coiling deep inside of him and waiting for the first opportunity to flare up and protect him again. It was the same as before. It would answer if he needed it, but he wouldn't hear it the way Lio did.

"Thank you. It helped," Lio reassured him, as if sensing his doubts, and then rested against his shoulder tiredly. "I'm still connected to it, but its fire is with you. So when it comes time to return it, you remember how, right?" He teased.

Galo had whiplash from the change in mood, but it wasn't bad, just hard to keep up with. "Are you sure it's okay now?"

"Yes," Lio said plainly. "It's complicated to explain, but this is much better."

With no idea what to say to that - 'complicated' meant it'd fly over his head anyway - Galo tried to relax as well, and started rubbing small circles on Lio's back in a way he hoped was comforting. That look of fear from earlier wouldn't be chased away from Galo's mind so easily. It would genuinely haunt him, overlap with the memories of their time in the engine of the Parnassus and open those wounds anew.

But Lio was relaxed and whole, and in his arms, and he couldn't fight down how perfect that was. No matter how uneasy he was with the situation, Lio was okay. He'd _better_ be okay.

"Should we try to get to sleep, then?" Galo finally suggested.

Lio nodded, and kissed him again before he could lie down. No fires searing his throat, nothing but a gentle touch, so there was no denying it was a genuine kiss, not life-saving in any way. Lio's hand on the side of his face, soft breath on his cheek, every detail another spark. It barely lasted. "Goodnight," Lio murmured, a slight, playful laughter in his voice.

Oh. Apparently the sparks were kind of literal, because Galo had actually caught fire.

But it didn't hurt, and it fizzled out when his embarrassment died down.

Without knowing what else to think, he laid down and hugged Lio close again, more secure, just to make sure he remembered he was there, alive, and safe. Anything else his mind decided to conjure up, like doubts and fears, he tamped down for the time being, telling himself to just enjoy the fact that Lio had been so affectionate and not question the reason for it.

  
  
  
  
  


The fiery, hungry voices of the promare spoke inside of Lio's mind at a level he wasn't used to at all. It _was_ too much for his body to handle. He needed to find a way to get them home, or else he could deteriorate.

Still, they hadn't meant any harm. They responded to his own thoughts and feelings almost like reflections in rippling water, varying and warping but starting from the same source. He figured, and hadn't found any way to discredit it, that the promare might not have solid personalities as humans do. They felt things, pain and sorrow, happiness and comfort, as an echo of his own feelings, but with a sincerity that surprised him. Their desires were simplistic, burn more and more, but they could also echo his own on some level, like sharing.

It might have been making him act a little crazy. Pushy, moody. He wanted to control that better, but with all the voices in him echoing and replaying everything he felt with extra levels, he was sure he'd lose his mind.

The loudest of the promare, the small piece he'd found in the ice above Prometh's lab, volunteered to give its fires to Galo. In his panic, he must have scared them as well. The loudest held the most power, and with that power so diminished, he could finally breathe easier, and he communicated that feeling as best he could, only to find it echoed back from the others, but not from the loud one.

Since it connected to Galo, it started speaking in echoes of thoughts completely foreign to him. He could only assume that they were Galo's feelings, and they were… heavy.

He couldn't find specific words, there was no such thing as mindreading, but he certainly found insight he hadn't expected. After he'd kissed Galo the night before, there was a burst of joy, embarrassment, and then behind all of that, sinking.

When he woke first in the morning, listening to the sound of rain on their tent, he opted to not get up, just to stay in Galo's tight grasp until … well, maybe they could talk about it. Galo might not understand all of it, but it would be worth trying to explain, if only so he could ask what there was to be so unnerved by. Maybe he didn't want Lio in the same way, it was _possible_ , but he was sure that he hadn't _completely_ misread their situation.

Galo had to feel some kind of affection toward him. He was way too damn _snuggly_ to not. He did cute little things like playing with his hair, kissing his forehead, so how could a proper kiss cause him to feel anything but happy? Lio just… wanted to know. When that want echoed in his mind, it became paranoia.

But he couldn't let that overtake him. If Galo had a reason for those distressed feelings, he would explain it if Lio asked, and he knew that for sure.

Once he'd put his own thoughts in order, mentally arranging just how to explain how the promare spoke to him, how he was still connected and could sort-of see what was going through Galo's mind, he shifted, brushing Galo's hair out of his face and leaning in - at the last second, he decided not to kiss him again, not yet, but pressed their foreheads together and quietly wished him a good morning.

He was right, Galo struggled with the explanation, but once he'd gotten through it and asked what had upset Galo the night before, the feeling shared in response was _crushing_.

But it wasn't unfamiliar.

Galo tried his best to put it to words but Lio shook his head and pressed a finger to his mouth to shut him up, buying himself just enough time to sort it out.

"...He made a mess out of you, didn't he?" He traced his fingers along Galo's jaw, wishing he could silence all the doubts in Galo's head in an instant.

He shouldn't have brought that up - through Galo's surprise at the statement, his eyes were suddenly glossy, watering, and Lio was quick to try and brush any tears away before they could actually fall.

"I won't push you. But I will _earn_ your trust, and you'll know without question that I love you."

That hollowed-out feeling of betrayal, he wasn't a stranger to it. He'd never felt it on the level Galo had, for sure, but he'd certainly had people he cared about stab him in the back. Galo's entire _world_ was turned upside down by Kray's betrayal, though. His own feelings on Kray's words when he'd found out, they'd been venomous, and he couldn't even begin to imagine how hurt Galo must've been by it all.

Galo hugged him tight and hid his face against Lio's shoulder. Lio was quite squished, but… It was fine. The rain sounded heavy enough to justify not getting back on the road yet, so they could relax a little longer.

"We've cleaned up worse messes," Lio murmured that reminder to him, gently petting him from his hair to the nape of his neck.

He heard muffled agreement, and sighed.

He couldn't pretend it didn't hurt; whether intentional or not, Galo was comparing him to Kray. Lio had been throwing himself at Galo for all this time and Galo had been doubting him. He'd assumed that the kind thing to do would've been to wait for him to act, but at least now he knew why it had never happened.

"Oh!" Galo suddenly shot upright, then leaned over Lio. "I forgot!"

Lio, startled, stared at him. "Forgot what?"

"I love you too!" He almost shouted. Galo's determined expression held through the next few seconds of complete silence, and Lio tried his best not to laugh.

He failed. "Idiot. Of course you do," He said with a grin, tugging Galo down over him again. It was definitely nice to hear, though.

"I mean it," Galo insisted. "I know you wouldn't do something horrible like tell me I'm an eyesore and you wish I was dead, and you definitely wouldn't k--"

Lio covered his mouth with his hand and glared at him. "Galo, I swear, keep talking like that and I'm throwing you out in the rain."

"See? I think that's the worst you'd do to me, and I don't think you even mean it," Galo ignored his warning and shook Lio's hand off his face, because of course he did.

"Keep testing my patience and we'll find out."

"I just-- I know you've been swept along with my whims before. I don't want that to be what's happening."

There it was. "Galo."

"Yeah?"

"Who the hell do you think I am?"

"Huh?"

Lio almost growled at him, pride and anger in his voice. "I'm Lio Fotia, Leader of the Mad Burnish. I'm not getting carried around by anyone's _whims_."

Galo almost tried talking again, but this time when Lio clapped a hand over his mouth it was much more firm.

"Shut up and listen. If I go along with a stupid idea of yours, it's because I _want_ to. Got it?" Lio waited for a nod, then continued. "Whether you've misjudged people before, I won't have you thinking I'm spineless."

He waited for another nod before he pulled his hand away.

"Good. Now that we're clear, lie back down with me and let's sleep in today."

Galo relented, plopping back down beside Lio and hugging him loosely, letting him settle in. Lio wasn't sure he wanted to go back to sleep yet, but he did want to rest comfortably there for a bit longer, at least until the sound of the rain started to let up.

He figured that he knew where Galo was coming from; Lio would often just go along with whatever Galo wanted, even if he felt less enthusiastic about it. From the time they piloted together and Lio altered the robot's appearance and gave it a matoi all because Galo was complaining, to the night they first shared a bed just because Galo said he liked being close. It was usually Galo's urging that pushed them closer together. Lio would just give Galo what he wanted.

Sometimes though, that was bound to be incidental. He wasn't giving his heart away because Galo wanted it, that would be stupid. He wouldn't put up with all the cuddling if he hadn't developed feelings of his own, hadn't wanted it just as much…

All eleven voices were urging him on, which was a whole other level of weird that he wasn't going to think about too deeply. But even without that push, he wanted Galo wholeheartedly. So he kissed him again, at last, slower this time in an attempt to savor it. A tiny flare danced between their lips without burning them, and Lio dared to lap at it, opening his mouth and encouraging Galo to do the same.

A more productive use of time would be coming up with ideas to send the promare home, but he'd been coming up empty on that for long enough that he knew it wouldn't be all that useful. May as well just enjoy himself for a while, since he was too tired to dedicate much thought to that anyway.

Something he found interesting was that Galo was an incredibly sloppy kisser, but it was cute, and Lio found it hard to be annoyed by anything, even Galo drooling on his face, since this was _finally_ happening. Small, colorful sparks surrounded the two of them, because Galo's heart rate was definitely raising the alarm and triggering the fires to act as though he needed to be protected, and Lio couldn't help but pull away and laugh about it. So cute.

"Why haven't we been doing this the whole time?" Galo asked playfully, tangling his fingers in Lio's hair and kissing him again.

"Because you're an idiot," Lio answered. He placed his hands on Galo's chest and looked him in the eye for a moment before adding, "...Maybe I have been too. Somewhat."

"I'm your idiot," Galo told him, nuzzling his forehead and kissing his brow.

"Ah, you're going to be insufferable, aren't you?" Lio teased. "Well, I suppose I knew what I was signing up for…"

"Yep. You're stuck with me. And you're lying if you say I haven't been insufferable since the moment we met!" He said that _way_ too cheerfully.

"Point taken." With that, he decided that he really _did_ want to rest, not just make out until the rain stopped. As appealing as it sounded, he didn't have a lot of energy for it, and it would be far too easy to get carried away, far from people and huddled together in a little tent. They hadn't prepared for this scenario, because they were idiots. But they'd get it right next time.

If, indeed, there was a next time. The dark clouds looming ahead were worse than a simple rainfall. He had to find a way to send the promare home.

But he didn't want to think about it yet. He didn't have answers, he just had this, and it was enough for now.

  
  
  
  


The rain didn't let up almost all day. They spent almost two full hours mentally preparing for the call, and planning out how they were going to explain what had happened in the way that would cause the least damage, and then Galo blurted it out stupidly in the first twenty seconds anyway, because of course.

Lio just rolled his eyes and started clarifying things to smooth it over as best he could.

Aina and Lucia were in the call, sitting to either side of Ignis. Varys was technically there too, but out of frame, and apparently he'd been doing pull-ups on the door frame until the 'Lio almost died' part of the story came out. But Lio did a pretty good job explaining the situation and while it was still _bad_ , it was understandable. They could see how it happened, and were more forgiving of the dumb choice to take number eleven.

"I had no idea it would get so bad… Coughing up ashes, really?" Aina asked, full of concern.

"There was a pain while that was happening, and it's gone now," Lio assured her, "Galo took some of the burden for me and now I should be fine for the foreseeable future."

They'd been there on the Parnassus, at least enough to see how Lio's flames had been with Galo, so they picked up on enough to grasp what was going on. "Well, for now, the important part is that you're alive. Come _straight_ back, no detours. As few stops as physically possible."

"Cap, nothing they do is straight," Lucia said with a lazy grin. Varys could be heard laughing off-camera.

Ignis just sighed at her. "Fotia. You can't keep being this reckless just because Galo is with you as backup. I expect _both_ of you to come back alive and whole. And you, Galo, stop enabling him."

"I'm not!" Galo complained loudly. "I yelled at him plenty for it!"

He felt danger coming from his left, where Lio was sitting, and the fire stirred to protect him. But Lio didn't actually do anything more than glare at him, so that was a bit of an overreaction.

"You're not gonna be able to stop in cities anymore, if Galo can't get that under control," Lucia pointed out.

"Oh, geez. I hope you guys have enough body wash for the return trip, he gets so gross when he goes without showering--"

Ignis cleared his throat loudly. " _In the meantime_ ," He started, authority in his tone, "I want everyone trying to think of a way to send these things back to their own dimension. No idea is too stupid, we have to start somewhere."

That sounded like Galo's cue to say something dumb, so he did, "Hey, y'know how Heris was using the promare to teleport? If we can find a way to do it without hurting Lio, would that work?"

They all fell silent and stared in his direction.

"What? He said no idea was too stupid!"

"...Prometh said the Foresight Foundation was using an incomplete prometech engine, right? So with Prometh's research, maybe she could do it and manage to not kill me." Lio looked thoughtful. "Lucia, you've been working with her, right? What do you think?"

"Wait, are you telling me I had a good idea?" That was twice in one trip, if so. He really ought to start keeping score.

"Actually, it does sound like a good starting point to work from…" Aina said, impressed.

"Hmmm…" Lucia leaned back in her chair, held a short, quiet exchange with Varys and sat back up suddenly. "Okay! I'm gonna consult with the expert on this one."

"My sister is home today--"

"Nope, not her. She can come if she wants, though. Show me where the lab is. We're hunting down his resources."

Lucia dragged Aina away, and Ignis folded his arms. "You two, don't get your hopes up yet. Hurry back, and hopefully we'll have some answers by the time you get here."

"Yes, sir!" Galo answered, pleased with himself.

"And one last thing, Fotia. Don't think I've let you off easy. I'm going to tell your boys what you did. I'll let them deal with you."

Lio blanched. It was weirdly cute that two guys who called him 'boss' could get such a reaction out of him because they acted like genuine family to him. They were kind of obsessed and loved him way too much, it was enough to make a guy jealous.

They ended the call and Lio groaned. "They're never going to shut up about this. They're such worrywarts."

"You're lucky to have them," Galo smiled at him. "I mean, I don't know what your family situation is, but they're like protective older brothers, right? It sounds nice."

"...Maybe," Lio conceded, seemingly falling back because of the mention of family.

"Ah, I'm not gonna make you tell me anything, don't worry. I just wanted to say I thought it was nice."

"Oh, I thought… I thought I shouldn't mention anything for your sake. I mean, I know what happened to your family, I know that had to be horrible…"

"Lio, I was a kid. It's okay to talk about it," Galo shrugged. "Sure, it's sad, but it's not a fresh wound anymore."

"I see…" Lio tapped his chin thoughtfully, and then explained, "You and I, we're both orphans since a young age. The burnish were my family, ever since then."

Galo couldn't pretend he wasn't excited to get just a little more of Lio's story, but he held back from showing it; that was not a statement that should get a smile for a reaction. "Do you remember your family from before that?"

"Sort of. Do you remember yours?"

"A bit." In the silence that followed, Galo wanted to say something sappy and dumb, like that his family had grown since Lio showed up, but he knew how that would sound. They probably weren't going to be there for a while. It wasn't how he would've meant it, but he'd keep it to himself for now.

But Lio was definitely family already. He felt closer to him than anyone else in the world, and in spite of his doubts, he was willing to believe that Lio felt the same.

"Galo," Lio said, gathering his attention back. "You really did a good job, thinking of the teleporter."

"...You've been praising me too much, it's getting weird."

"Well, your weird brain has been particularly useful lately," Lio teased, leaning back on his hands. "Even if it doesn't work, it's a good lead. I don't know if it'd take more or less energy from the promare to send them to another dimension, rather than lightyears away, but it will be good to find out."

"Lio, if it hurts you, I can't let you do it." He knew it was probably pointless to say so. Lio would do whatever the hell he wanted, for one. Nobody could stop him if he was determined.

And also, that fear in his eyes, with those ashes in his hand… He couldn't have a death wish, no matter how much he pushed himself. 

"Well, we need to send them back before this kills me, anyway," Lio corrected him soberly. "It'll be a while, so we can put it off, but if push comes to shove, I'd rather lose a limb than my life." Galo must have made a face at that, because he hurried to add, "I'm sure it won't come to that. Just… If I have to choose between getting hurt and death, it's a no-brainer."

"No, there's gotta be a way to make it so that it'll go smoothly!"

"Of course you'd say that," Lio said with a light laughter.

He was going to insist that it would work, but he didn't want to argue about something like that, because it would require dwelling on it - remembering what he looked like after being pulled out of the engine, no arms and legs, not breathing, no heartbeat… Yeah, he'd rather not. It would _never_ come to that again because he'd never let it.

The rain was still coming down, but it seemed lighter. It was already afternoon.

"Think we should head out? Get a few more hours in before daylight's gone?"

"Yeah," Lio agreed, but didn't look thrilled about it, either. "Hopefully we'll be out of this weather in an hour or so."

"Hey, I'd be fine staying here 'till tomorrow morning with you, but that just means it'll take longer to get home and sleep in a proper bed." Galo beamed at him. "And we can go and get a decent pizza!"

"...Our first date will _not_ be pizza, Galo."

"Nah, everything we've already done's retroactively dates."

"Is that so? So I've already ended a date leaving you tied up in a cave?" Lio's face was a lot less sour about the weather now, at least.

"Hmm. Okay, starting with the Lio de Galon, everything's been a date!"

Lio's laughter was _everything._ "You're a strange one, Galo Thymos. And you're very lucky that you're cute."

"Eh, that sounds enough like a compliment," Galo beamed at him and leaned in for another kiss, which Lio gave him. He'd be addicted to them before long.

"Let's get going," Lio said softly. "We can pick this up again next time we stop."

That was motivation enough; Galo stole just one more before they broke camp together and set out in the rain. The fires kept him warm and dry as he drove, now relying on GPS rather than whatever internal compass the promare had given Lio.

The return trip would be much faster without the detours, but it wouldn't be dull.

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
